Hookfang's Tale
by Fizzlemcschnizzle
Summary: A midget on a giant's shoulders sees the farthest of the two. This is a story of the unsung heroes who enabled Hiccup and Toothless to pull off their crazy shenanigans in HTTYD.
1. Wedding Crashers

**A/N:**  
Why did the dragons _really_ raid Berk?

What's it like to be a powerful dragon thrown into a gladiator ring against… hapless children?

Is Sean Connery _really_ the greatest dragon voice actor in all history?

How much meat would Meatlug lug if Meatlug could lug meat?

Most of these questions will be answered!

A midget on a giant's shoulder sees the farthest of the two. This is a story of the unsung heroes who enabled Hiccup and Toothless to pull off their crazy shenanigans in HTTYD.

Also, while this is my third story, why am I writing in first-person for the first time?

I… uhhh… I dunno.

Hope you enjoy!

On a side note, unlike Kronk, I have no formal education in speaking the language of the forest animals, so no dragonese. If you find this disappointing, all I have to say is, "Squeak squeakadee squeak squeaken." Ha! I either told you to deal with it _or_ I just gave you my credit card number – I'm not sure which.

Oh, by the way, I'm planning to make the title for each chapter a little Easter egg hunt. If I pull it off right, you'll find some sort of subtle reference to a meme or pop culture tidbit from the past decade in each chapter and you'll say to yourself, "Man, FizzleMcSchnizzle has some wit." If I _don't_ pull it off right, I'll look like an idiot. Huzzah!

 **Obligatory disclaimer** :  
Everyone says it, so I guess I'll say it too because I'd totally get my pants sued off of me if I don't – LOL! I don't own any dragons, Vikings, or any other stuff I use from the HTTYD movie. Dreamworks does. I do, however, own a pet troll, which I have been training to steal everyone's _right_ sock.

* * *

 **Wedding Crashers**

Whenever my nest receives a new arrival and asks what it's like here, I tell them all the same thing. It's a hop and a glide off Hopeless, but not so far you're freezing to death. It's located solidly in the fog of foreboding.

In a word: mountainous. The entire island is essentially one large, dormant volcano and has been here for as long as anyone can recall, but hasn't changed one bit. While we dragons aren't bothered by the weather – which ranges from "So cold you can see your breath" to "So cold you spit and ice clinks against the ground" – the warmth inside the mountain is nice. Outside, though, we have hunting, fishing, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests.

It is a beautiful place, but the queen has commanded us to go hunt for her. I spread my wings and jump up into the air to join my fellow dragons. Yes, here is my nest... and there it goes. Tonight, we have to venture from the safety of our nest to visit these pests.

You see, most places have... wolves or... eels. We have land-striders. Land-striders are scaleless, thin-skinned, flammable vermin with four legs, but walk on only their hind legs. Some have long, straight shiny claws while others have broad, curved claws. Though they have only one or two claws, they can put a substantial amount of force behind a strike to break through the scales or even lop off a dragon's head. They are silly creatures and it is a wonder – and an inconvenience – that they can survive and proliferate in this cold, snowy scattering of islands.

Extremely dangerous, kill on sight.

Thankfully, they're not attacking us today. Granted, while they can manage to down some dragons, their definition of attacking our nest is to deliver themselves on nicely flammable hunks of wood, some sort of land-strider sea vessel.

See? Silly critters!

Even their nests are built from trees. We burn them down, then they build them again. One would think they would leave. One would think they could recognize futility when it's staring them in the face. One would think our charming dragon demeanor would give them a hint.

One would be gravely mistaken.

Since they stay, we have to deal with them. The queen is hungry and demands tribute, and though there are plenty of fish in the sea, she hungers for red meat. More specifically, she hungers for all the food that the selfish, greedy, evil land-striders all hoard to themselves. My task, along with many other dragons, is to claim that which the queen desires.

Tonight, our target is an island where the land-striders grow particularly large and hearty. The queen enjoys this breed the most. Not only do they have a lot of meat, but she finds the fat content to be quite desirable. For how ungainly these wingless rodents can appear, though, dragons have a tendency to die when trying to claim them as tribute for her. Still, we frequent this island because this tribute pleases the queen.

If the queen is satisfied, nothing else matters. She loves us. She protects us with her fog that disorients the land-striders when they come to attack us. She provides a warm habitation on her volcanic island, safe from the harsh elements, where we can lay eggs and raise our young. She gives us a sense of purpose and meaning in life that other dragons in far-off lands have never had the pleasure of experiencing. She cares for us and we would do anything to please her no matter the danger.

If dragons die trying to please her, it's their own fault. The weak die so they don't hinder the strong.

I am not among such weak dragons. Just as land-striders have different species with different sizes and types of shiny claws, we dragons can be loosely grouped, too. There are the little ones the land-striders call terrors that are terrible. Personally, I like to refer to them as mink dragons for how small, nimble, and aggressive they are. Another species looks like flying boulders, and when land-striders roar out such a dragon's name, it sounds like they're choking on their own tongues.

Another species has the unique feature of venomous quills lining the tail, which they can shoot with a quick flick. Like me, they have two powerful legs to grant mobility on land, but theirs are longer and more suited for sprinting long distances and hopping over downed trees and boulders. The land-striders call them deadly adders, but what similarities they have to a snake is beyond me. Also, how one could consider them deadly is a mystery unless one is small and weak. It must be some inside joke the little land-striders came up with.

Then, there's the most powerful sort of dragon. That would be me. The land-striders call me a nightmare that is monstrous. I'll admit I'm flattered to hear my visage inspires nightmares, but I'm not _that_ monstrous, really. I mean, sure, there are smaller dragons, but there are plenty larger than me. Though still inferior, of course!

Since land-striders clearly don't know anything about my kind, perhaps I should come up with my own title. Something like… terribly deadly, beautiful, and unstoppable dragon that burns and kills as he pleases.

Yes, that's more appropriate.

Ah, here's the island coming up right now, an open expanse of rocky spires and ridges, sprawling forests, and patches of grassy fields. Just off the coast, two sea stacks are carved into the shape of a pair of land-striders, complete with fires lit in their mouths and some likeness of shiny claws. I think they're meant to intimidate us or something like that. I answered nature's call on top of one of those, once.

As for the island, with all the trickling streams, mountaintop lakes, and wildlife prancing through the forest, it would actually be a wonderful place for a dragon to nest. However, the queen forbids us from going out this far except for these brief raids. Bad things happen if we stray too far for too long.

The main attraction for tonight, though, is a cluster of wooden caves laid out on top of a network of rocky bluffs. It looks like we have the element of surprise. One can never be too cautious with these land-striders and their large, shiny claws.

Up ahead, invisible against the night sky, the black dragon circles the land-strider nest. He is the only one of his kind in our nest. Though his wings can stretch out almost as far as mine, he's smaller and lighter than me. Unlike my own sticky and slow-burning fire I glob out, his fire comes out as a blue ball that violently explodes on impact. Since we raid at night, he takes advantage of his dark scales to fly above the land-strider nest, undetected, and provide support without becoming directly involved. Even before we begin the raid, he can be handy for flying ahead to scout out the situation below.

Instead of giving us _useful_ information, though, he starts sharing a memory of a land-strider ritual he just witnessed. Now, when I say the black dragon shares his memory, a being of lesser intelligence may not understand what I'm really implying. A dragon would never do something so asinine as to take the thoughts in his mind, figure out some arbitrary way to represent those thoughts in some sort of guttural cacophony that land-striders use when thinking with their lips, and _then_ require others to figure out how to interpret those sounds and how they could possibly relate to the original thoughts.

No, we're not silly land-striders. When I say the black dragon _shared his memory_ , I mean he literally did _just that_. Thoughts can be shared. They can be given, but never taken away.

I can see, through his eyes, a large group of land-striders gathered around a pile of burning sticks, jumping about, and warbling at each other. I hear the admittedly intriguing and rhythmical sounds produced when some of them hit round pieces of hide with sticks. I understand what he was able to piece together from the thoughts one land-strider was projecting to another... something about swimming the freezing sea, enduring the scorching heat of a hot sun, and offering great and mighty tributes to win the affection of another. The mate would then respond with a command to shut up and just mate with her.

It must be some strange ritual. Again, silly creatures – case in point! With a dragon, it's simple; when the season comes, I'd chase down a female I deem worthy, fight off the other males, and never take no for an answer. Land-striders, though… how can they even reproduce when mating is such an arduous and complicated process? Seriously!

The black dragon is actually quite proud of himself for piecing together what he did. When land-striders think with their lips, their projected thoughts are all scattered and disorganized – an outward projection of the chaos within. They are capable of projecting higher-level thoughts beyond the passive hum of primal emotions, but it all splashes around and often makes no sense. It requires a lot of concentration and a bit of luck to try to piece together the general gist.

 _{STOP DISTRACTING_ **MY** _DRAGONS WITH SUCH MEANINGLESS NONSENSE AND BRING ME TRIBUTE!}_

Yeah, you tell him, my beloved queen!

I can tell that was her projections because, just as every individual dragon has his or her own unique scent, so likewise with each projected thought. While most dragons cannot project their thoughts any farther than a growl can be heard, the queen is the exception. Well, the black dragon is, too, with his array of sensor lobes of various sizes all around the back of his head, each a corded web of nerves underneath a layer of hide and scales. This makes him very valuable to the queen, who uses him to extend the range at which we can hear her.

The black dragon projects his most sincere apologies for foolishly distracting us with such trifle things as land-strider mating rituals and starts to give us some actually useful information to help with our raid. Were he not the only one of his kind in our nest and were he not so useful to the queen, she would have eaten him long ago. He's often distracted by trivial things and, for some reason, thinks he is a powerful dragon.

I can't help but disagree with that last part.

 _Hey, look, you destroyed one of those weird land-strider trees that hurls rocks into the air. Great. I'm sure_ somebody _is impressed!_

By now, all the land-striders are alerted to our presence and running about, mating ritual forgotten, making fires and pushing them up into the air at the tip of some sort of tree that can extend up from the ground. I have bigger fish to catch and, by fish, I really mean land-striders. Unlike most other dragons, which avoid direct confrontation and snatch up the herd animals that the land-striders horde for themselves, I go for prey that actually fights back. Yes, only the most capable dragons – such as yours truly – actually hunt down land-striders.

Ha! Just like that one in the mouth of a wooden cave down there! I fold my wings and swoop down, flaring to a hover just short of the ground. I take a deep breath and let out a gout of fire at my hapless prey. Unfortunately, the critter finds something to hide behind.

Oh well, small loss. Literally, because that land-strider was all flesh and bones. I honestly doubt it even had any meat on its body. The queen wouldn't be satisfied with such worthless tribute that would only get stuck between her teeth, anyway.

As if to taunt me, only a moment after I take off in search of something with more meat, the little twig of a land-strider pops out of its cave and runs away from me. I decide to let it go. The little ones are always too quick and lean to be worth the chase, anyway. Let the mink dragons fight for worthless scraps.

Looking around I see some more prey, but none are good enough for me. I want to take some prey that will actually fight back. There's one, but it's too small. There's another, but it's too fat. Too injured... too many… Aha! Here's a good one- Oh, nevermind. Too dead. Argh! The world hates me!

 _C'mon! Gimme something to shoot at. Gimme something to shoot at..._

Aha! Up ahead, there's a much better tribute. This breed of land-strider has a broad torso and particularly large front legs that end in a broad, shiny claw. It's still dead meat, but it looks like it can at least put up a fight. If it survives up until the queen eats it, she will be very pleased. She especially enjoys live land-striders.

Naturally, I start things off in my usual way. And what, one may ask, is my usual way of hunting prey? I'll put it this way.

Fire.

Fire _EVERYWHERE_!

I am on fire. The ground is on fire. The wooden nest I creep over jumps up into orange flames.

There is no better way to hunt than with an unnecessarily inordinate amount of fire! It's all just so… magnificent!

The land-strider sees me. I see it and strike a pose on top of the wooden cave – now a wooden pyre – as I bellow out a mighty roar. It is the sort of roar that inspires absolute terror and shakes the very ground. I've killed various animals with only my roar. The body convulses, jaw drops, eyes roll back, and the heart decides life is overrated. True story.

Unfortunately, my roar alone isn't enough, nor what must be a jaw-dropping sight of a dragon completely engulfed in flames. This land-strider must not recognize true power when it sees – or hears – it, so I launch into the sky and slam into the ground just behind it, ready to claim my tribute to the queen. Some of my burning fuel spatters on impact, adding even more orange illumination to my surroundings. By the egg that hatched me, fire just makes _everything_ better!

My prey whirls around and brings up its shiny claw and a large, round carapace all species of land-striders seem to have. Its horns, though, actually look hilarious. It must be some sort of self-defense mechanism that grows on the head of a land-strider, but those horns look like they belong on a ram.

Rams are adorable little things that taste especially good with a light roasting.

Land-striders, on the other wing, taste absolutely terrible, but the queen likes them, so I square up against this one. It casts a furtive glance around and I see others closing in on our position. Great. More tributes.

 _Come to me, my prey. You can all come meet my queen. It's a one-way trip, so say your goodbyes while you can._

I rear back on my haunches as I take a large breath of air before leaning forward on my wings to shoot out a river of fire. My prey hides behind its round carapace, which burns to nothing. Already, I have the advantage. Without its carapace, the thing is about as tough as grass. I lunge and snap my teeth, but it jumps to the side. It tries to slash at me with its shiny claw, but I jerk my head back and it misses. I sense danger from my right and push off to the left, raising my right wing up to dodge a shiny claw from another land-strider.

The new prey's missed slash threw it off-balance, so I tuck my right wing under and roll over, swiping with my tail to knock its legs off the ground. This prey isn't the one I was initially trying to grab, but it'll do. It would be nice to bring back something a bit larger, but if wishes were fishes, the queen would be displeased.

With one, quick move, I wrap my jaw around its neck and shoulder and give my neck a hard twist. Fangs sink in deep and blood spurts out to add some very artistic crimson stripes to the black spots that already decorate my maroon scales. I take a moment to admire the improvements to an already immaculate sight.

 _Why thank you for that, little land-strider._

The best part of it, though, is that while the meat tastes terrible to my tongue, their blood... by my egg, their blood is always so _delicious_.

My prey convulses and then hangs limp – I think I crushed its entire torso – but before I can find clearance to take off, I'm forced to duck under a projectile, which ends up whizzing over my head. I need to drop this thing in my mouth for now, so I swing my head to toss it off the edge of the nearby cliff. It'll float in the water far below so I can collect it after dealing with these other prey. If it hits any rocks on the way down, that will only serve to tenderize the meat for my queen.

Freed from my burden, I take in the situation. Oh, just great! Now there are even _more_ land-striders surrounding me.

 _Fine. Six against one? You_ still _don't stand a chance, but at least you can die knowing you've made me work a little harder for my tribute._

 _Good job with that, I guess._

Fortunately, none of them are the Beast. That's what we call this one land-strider on this island that's particularly talented at killing dragons. They say that way back when it was but a little hatchling, it popped a dragon's head clean off his shoulders.

Do I believe it?

Off in the distance, I hear the agonizing bellows of a fellow nightmarish monster. The transition into a wet gurgle, followed by a loud crack leaves room to wonder what exactly happened to that unfortunate dragon, but there's no doubt it was painful and deadly. That was probably the Beast's handiwork and the large land-strider certainly isn't a hatchling anymore.

So, yes. Yes, I do.

The Beast is the ultimate prize. No dragon has ever taken it down. It will be my pleasure to take the honors.

Not tonight, of course... I'm not scared or anything. I'm busy!

Nearby, a deadly adder gives a screech and starts hissing at the land-striders surrounding me, clearly intent on claiming some of my tribute as her own. I let out an angry roar.

 _Oh no you don't, you greedy, arrogant, puffed-up, egotistical, haughty... Bah, I'll just tell her myself._

 _{Back off, Adder! I claim these land-striders as mine. If you get involved,_ you _will be my tribute.}_

Some dragons just don't get it. She thinks that just because she stopped a land-strider from poking me with its shiny claw in the previous raid, she has the right to take my tribute. If she thinks we're friends, then she's wrong, because a friend in need is a pest!

I adorned my projected threat with all the ire I felt and topped it with an image of her own dead carcass falling from my talons and into the awaiting maw of the queen. It wouldn't be the first time a dragon has done such a thing in this dragon-eat-dragon world.

Now _that_ is how you deliver a threat. No mewling and warbling and grumbling for long periods of time like the land-striders often do. My projected message is vivid, to the point, leaves no room for doubt, and is delivered in the blink of an eye.

She got the message and must respect my superiority as she gave an indignant hiss and flaps off to find her own tribute. Such dragons usually go for things like sheep or yaks, after all. Hardly a moment after taking off, I see her join some other dragons of her kind to fight over some sheep, but they all get entangled in a web of vines and jumped by several land-striders. Ah, The old "vulnerable sheep trapped below a conspicuous ledge" trick. Some dragons have even _less_ intelligence than a land-strider.

I snap my attention back to my prey. More have joined the pack and they are closing in on me. One makes a lunge and I jump out of the way. Something bites into my flank, but I ignore the pain as I duck under another projectile and snag a land-strider with the claws on the leading edge of my left wing.

 _Ha! You think my wings are only for flying? I can take you all with one wing pressed against my back. Come and get-_

WHAM!

 _Ow! Oooow!_

Remember when I said land-striders have only one or two claws? Well, some species have no claws at all. Instead they have a stone attached to the end of a stick. That species of land-striders always goes for the face.

 _Why the face?!_

This one struck me along the jawline. I briefly flex my jaw. Good, still working. My species has a locked jaw, which is great for crunching down on land-striders with incredible force. However, they've learned that a hard-enough blow to the side of a nightmarish monster's head can dislocate his jaw, leaving it hanging askew so the poor dragon would be unable to breathe fire or bite down. It is a terrible fate but, I was spared, this time.

More land-striders continue to fill in around me.

 _Hey, there's no hurry. No need to all crowd in at once. Allow me to even the odds._

I take a deep gulp of air and lay out a large swathe of fire around me, effectively cutting off a majority of them. Smoke billows up, burning my nostrils in the most invigorating way. Waves of heat lap at my scales like a gentle caress. I close my inner, transparent eyelids and peer around through the smoke.

 _Ah, now this is more like it. It's amazing how a little fire can really liven up a dull fight._

The land-striders stumble backward, disoriented. A few are smoking or on fire. I send a few more to the ground with my tail as I whirl around to lunge at the one that must have hit me. It jumps back. I lunge again, but only get a mouthful of its round, wooden carapace. At the very same moment, I feel something sharp sink into the base of my tail.

I screech in indignation and whirl around on my new attacker. Sticking out of my leg is something I could never decide to be a claw or a quill. It's definitely something sharp at the end of a stick they thrust into dragons.

I wrap my teeth around it and pull it out, snapping it in half in my jaws. The widening of the land-strider's eyes, the slackening of its jaw, the sharp transition in its emotional hum from triumph to fear shows it is learning an important lesson on just how useless those shiny claws are on a dragon my size.

I rise up on my haunches and flutter my wings, swirling clouds of smoke around me, and roar angrily. My prey starts to back up in fear.

 _Yes, you should be scared, little land-strider. Little rodent. Little pest. You just secured your own demise._

 _Congratulations!_

I take a deep breath and burn it to ashes.

… Or not. Hardly a splash of burning fuel comes out and, now that I'm paying attention to it, I can feel just how empty I am. When did the flames all over my body die down? Without any more fire left in me, my options have become more limited. The swathe of fire I had laid down earlier to limit how many could attack me is starting to die down and fade away.

The other land-striders appear to be encouraged by this. I spread my wings and roar at them.

 _You think I need fire to kill you all? Huh? Is that what you think? You think I am less deadly without fire?_

 _I will tear your flesh to shreds! I will drink your blood! I will crush your skull!_

 _My queen will feast on your broken bodies!_

I lunge forward and wrap my teeth around the bottom part of a land-strider's leg. Instead of howling in pain and dying like a good land-strider, it just stares at me with amusement.

 _Wait, what?_

Oh! The leg is made of wood. Hey, I remember you, land-strider. I bit off your leg before it was replaced with a stick. It was a fine addition to my tribute from several seasons ago. Give me your other leg!

WHAM!

Ow! Again! Really? Another stone-on-a-stick land-strider hits me hard right below the eye. Why do they always go for the face?

I twist around on my new attacker and lunge, but it just jumps out of the way like the little rodent it is. I lunge again. As I said, these annoying rodents are faster than they appear.

Off in the distance, the distinct screeching roar of the black dragon cuts through the air and all dragons look up at the disturbance. I can't see what happened to him, but there's pain in that roar for sure. His projections are filled with all sorts of panic and anguish. I can feel the queen's disappointment and contempt humming in my mind.

WHAM!

WHAM!

OW! Again, the face! Why the face?! Seriously! I get distracted for a single instant and they're all over me. My back flares up in pain as a shiny claw digs in. My right wing pops painfully as a land-strider twists it in an unnatural way.

WHAM!

Why did the stars all fall to the ground? They belong in the sky and they know it!

That's it! No more Mr. nice dragon! With a flick of my tail, I knock a couple down.

 _Ha! Eat dirt, little worms! Fall before your hunter!_

I rear up on my legs and push off backward. A couple land-striders on top of me go flying off to the side. I can feel one has the misfortune of coming between my back and the ground. I roll off him and snap at another, but the little rodent just jumps out of the way.

WHAM!

 _Ow! My eye?! You're seriously going for my eyes?!_

WHAM!

Alright, this is getting annoying.

 _You think you can defeat me?! You think you are better than me?!_

 _I am fire! I am fury! You are my prey and I am your killer! I will not be defeated by such miserable little rodents!_

I leap into the air and spread my wings. I need to distance myself from them and gather my wits before I strike again. Unfortunately, my right wing doesn't feel like functioning and I end up crashing back down to the ground. Whatever that one land-strider did to it... how could a creature so small cause damage so great?!

To top it all off, my legs refuse to straighten. I glance down to see some of those vines with stones wrapped around.

WHAM!

Before I could even pull my legs under me to stand, I take a blow to the head - again. Alright, I'll admit it. Things are not looking so good for me or some of my newly loosened teeth. Good thing they grow back.

WHAM!

Owww! Did the number of land-striders around me just double? Also, land-striders don't have wings. How are they all just floating around me?

This can't be it. This cannot be my end! My queen wants these creatures as tribute. She deserves no less.

She _needs_ me!

I cannot allow them to kill me here. They are not my killers. They are prey. They are weak! I am strong!

I try to lunge out at one of them, but my legs can't even move.

 _You land-striders are absolutely the worst, most cruelly sadistic creatures that ever failed to fly._

WHAM!

A blow sends me crashing down on my side. The land-striders all swarm around me. With a deep breath, I make a final effort to shake myself free. I manage to wrap my teeth around one of them and am rewarded with a delightful shriek of agonizing pain from the little rodent, but there are so many.

I can't see straight. I can't _think_ straight. Why are the stars swimming around on the ground? Somebody tell them to go back into the sky! They don't belong on the ground and they know it!

 _Stars, if you don't go back into the sky this instant, I will_ MAKE _you go back!_

Off in the distance of my mind, I can hear the queen calling all dragons back to the nest. She's angry at having lost the black dragon and wants to find him, but we cannot linger any longer. Bad things happen if we stay too long. The queen never wants bad things to happen to us. I can't join them, though. There are so many land-striders surrounding me and my right wing doesn't work and my legs are stuck.

I would be biting down on the land-strider in front of me, but such a simple task is surprisingly impossible when my head is pinned to the ground. Instead, I settle for an angry glare. It's just not the same!

Off to the side, A large form tumbles off a rocky ledge above me. Focusing real hard, I can recognize it to be my own kind. A nightmarish monster. He must be dead, judging by the lack of a head attached to his neck. If there's one thing I know about heads, it's that it's hard to live without them.

 _Alright, land-striders, you've made your point. You're scared. Understandable considering my imposing appearance. Maybe I was being a bit too greedy in trying to take you_ all _with me. So, everyone, just back up and I'll take only a_ few _of you. See? I'm not an unreasonable dragon._

 _Don't make me kill you all. I can't carry all of you back to my queen and she doesn't want us to waste meat. Just stop what you're doing and I'll let you go._

WHAM!

I try to get up, but just flop on the ground. Never before have I felt so helpless and humiliated. I can tell I'm all alone with these land-striders. Every dragon still able to fly is long gone. I should be with them, not stuck here with these stupid insects.

 _I only wanted to kill them all! Is that really too much to ask? How could this have happened to me?! I am stronger than them!_

 _I am not weak!_

WHAM!

I heave my head off the ground and give a deathly glare at the land-strider standing in front of me.

 _Let me just open my mouth and-_

 _Curse you all, stupid, weak rodents! Even my jaw is entangled with your silly vines! Great. Just great. Now you'll have to kill_ yourselves _since I can't do it for you. Thanks for making this_ really _awkward. Does this make you happy?_

 _I give you all permission to die a painful death and feed yourself to my queen._

 _Oh no! My queen! I have failed you. My queen, this isn't fair. Please help me! I don't want to be prey. I don't deserve this pain and humiliation._

 _I don't want to die!_

 _My queen... I'm so sorry I cannot give you tribute tonight. My queen, you must be very disappointed in me. My queen…_

 _Help!_

 _Help me… please. I don't want to die!_

 _I'm… scared._

A land-strider strides right up to my head and looks down at me with a smirk. They're all radiating contempt and pride at the accomplishment all twenty of them made. I curl back my lips and bear my fangs - still covered in the blood of my fallen foes. That certainly wiped away their gloating attitude.

 _Ha! I'll put you in your place you stupid, sadistic, despicable, miserable, scaleless, crawling-_

WHAM!

* * *

 **A/N 2.0:  
** Now we see why, in the movie, during the raid, Gobber said, "Man the forge, Hiccup; they need _ME_ out there."

This is my first story written in first-person. As you can tell, it's not meant to be a super duper serious read, but I hope you like it anyway.

Many thanks to Colorful Crayola over at Fanfiction for being my beta reader!

I even got my dad and brother involved in giving me their thoughts from the perspective of one who has never watched HTTYD.

Also, I'd like to thank you for checking out my story (and even reading through _two_ author's notes). I know I ain't perfect, so if you feel the urge to point out something I did right or wrong or good or bad, please don't hesitate to PM or comment. There's a lot of talent in this wonderful community and I'd love to hear your thoughts about the story.

* No land-striders were harmed in the making of this story. The Monstrous Nightmare got a bloody nose, though.


	2. Loathe it Or Ignore it

**A/N:**

So, I had mentioned that each chapter will contain a little Easter egg pop culture reference. In Ch. 1, when the black dragon was spying on the village, I narrated my rendition of how I imagined a dragon would perceive a Viking wedding. So… the dragons are wedding crashers. "You may now kiss the- Odin's beard! Nevermind! Kill the dragons!" Well, kissing wasn't really a thing in that culture, I think.

I also included a quote from the Wedding Crashers movie, "A friend in need is a pest."

True to form, this chapter also has some Easter eggs (four, including the title). At least one should be more readily recognizable.

* * *

 **Life… Loathe it Or Ignore it, You Can't Like it**

Ugh! What… happened? It's so dark, save for a tiny sliver of light that's painfully stabbing at my eyes. The stars are no longer swimming around on the ground. In fact, they're gone. It's like all those land-striders surrounding me suddenly transformed into… into…

 _Where am I, anyway?_

I crack my eyelids open a little more. Darkness and stone walls all around. It's actually kinda soothing. Headache aside, I guess that's an improvement, right?

Then again, maybe not. I mean, last night, there were some bits that are kinda fuzzy in my head, but I sorta liked having those little, hairy land-striders around. We were playing this fun game where I would kill them and they would die. Oh the fun we had. Good times.

And then, I would… take them back to…

The queen!

Oh no! She needs me!

I snap my eyes open, bringing all the nothingness around me into sharp focus.

Where is she? She's gone! I need her! I cannot hear her! Ever since I cracked my egg, I could always sense her presence in my mind. Now, though, I can't… sense… hear… she's just… Where _is_ she?!

I scrabble about in the darkness, frantically searching for a way out. There's nothing here. Nothing! Just stone walls everywhere. Feeling around with the tips of my wings, it soon becomes horrifyingly clear that there is no way out of this cave.

How did I get here? Why am I here? Wait, that's sunlight peeking through the crack in the wall to burn out my dilated pupils… I was _sleeping_? How could I allow myself to sleep when there is so much work to be done? The queen is hungry! I have never failed to bring her tribute in any past raid and I don't plan to start now. She's always pleased with the tribute I bring back to her and praises my strength and boldness.

Now, though, she's just… gone! How can this be?

Wait, now that I've calmed my whirling thoughts, I can sense the passive emotional hum of four, maybe five other dragons nearby. They're close. I'm not alone! Together, we can break out of this tiny cave!

Yes!

There's a mink dragon I don't recognize, but I can recognize a female boulder dragon who disappeared quite some time ago. The leaves have grown and fallen a few times since then, but I would recognize the signature of her mental hum anywhere.

Once, she gave me some fish for tribute after a particularly terrible raid when I came back to the nest empty-taloned. The queen knew I took nothing from the land-striders, but she still didn't eat me.

The queen is so merciful and gracious!

I can also recognize that pest of a Deadly Adder who tried to steal my tribute before she was… captured… by the land-striders…

But if she's here… and _I'm_ here… that would mean… no… this is _not_ happening. I _refuse_ to believe it!

Oh no! Nononononononooooo!

NO! NO! NO!

I am not as weak and stupid as her. I cannot be conquered like a lesser dragon. I am strong! I am hunter! I am killer! I bring our beloved queen the most delightful morsels.

I don't belong here. I shouldn't be here. I cannot be _trapped_ here like this!

Think! Think! Don't panic. I've been in worse situations before. I just need to think. Oh, why can't the walls just be made of wood or land-striders instead of stone? I can't burn my way out. Maybe...

Ah! Maybe this hunter can stoop down a little and… help these other dragons escape? After all, beggars can't be choosers. Since I can't get out here by myself at the moment, I might as well try.

 _{Fellow dragons, hear me. We need to escape this tiny cave. I was killing land-striders as tribute for the queen, but they escaped. Help me break out so I can get back to her.}_

For the longest time, nothing but awkward silence. I can even sense that the other dragons are trying to suppress their passive hum as though hiding from me. I realize I can be quite intimidating without even trying, but something is off.

 _What is wrong with them?_

 _{I know you're there. You can stop pretending you don't exist. Stupid dragons.}_

…

Hmm, still nothing. Alright, maybe a more direct approach.

 _{Dragons, we must work together to escape from these miserable land-striders and return to our queen. She needs us! If you do not cooperate with me and help me escape, then she will surely eat you and you will deserve it.}_

That should scare them straight. Nothing gets results like a death threat!

Finally, a chirp from the Adder. It sounds distant to my ears, but the strength of the projected thoughts I receive from her tell me she's close, even if we're separated by stone. Ire pours out of her, but tinged with sorrow and a most unwanted sympathy.

 _{You were not so eager to accept my help before. However, the sun has risen twice since then. I see you have endured much suffering and the worst is yet to come, so I will put that beneath me.}_

My jaw smacks against the ground. Two days?! I suppose that would explain why my injuries are mostly healed over, but how… why… when… Well, it doesn't matter. I need to free myself from this tiny cave.

My queen needs me!

 _{Adder, we must escape. Can you get to me? Perhaps, together, we can break out of this cave. I'll even give you one of my prey to claim as your own tribute if you help me. Boulder dragon, do what you were hatched to do and chew your way out. We both know you can!}_

I would go on, but I can sense hesitation and a strong disapproval – not just from her, but from all the other dragons present.

 _What is the meaning of this?_

Did the land-striders change them, somehow? Break their minds? Find some way to control them? Well it won't work on me; I can say _that_ for sure! I will not be so easily subdued as these lesser dragons. I will kill the land-striders or die trying before they can do anything else to me!

 _Come and get me, little land-striders. You failed to kill me in our last encounter and I won't be so gentle_ this _time_.

Adder's projected thoughts cut through my own.

 _{You do not want to escape, Nightmarish Monster. Life is better, here. One may even say you have never lived until today. To escape from here is to lose your mind to the queen. To stay is to be free from her.}_

Excuse me? I'm absolutely, positively, without any room for a shadow of a doubt, certain of the exact opposite. I _need_ to get back to my queen _now_!

But… where _is_ the queen? I cannot hear her passive hum. I cannot feel her tug on my mind, directing me to the safety of her haven. It's like there's suddenly a void in my mind that she has always filled.

She's just… gone!

Why do I feel relief? Why do I feel lighter for this? What is _wrong_ with me?! The queen loves us! She protects us! She asks for nothing more than tribute from the various land-strider inhabited islands every couple days. She lets us share our memories with her of our most exciting fights with the land-striders.

She… she…

 _{She used us.}_

What?! No! Stupid Adder. Idiot! That cannot be. She would _never_ do that. She _loves_ us! This must be some sort of land-strider trickery. They broke her mind.

Yes! That's it! I am not some weak, simple-minded fool. To doubt that the queen is so benevolent and noble… Ha!

I let out an amused warble. _{Alright, you gave me a scare for a moment, Adder. Great. You can take comfort in knowing that before the queen asks me to kill you and feed you to her. It looks like you_ will _be my tribute to her after all.}_

Once again, the Adder's projected thoughts cut through my pondering.

 _{You feel it, don't you? It's like a fog that was trapped inside your mind, hindering your thoughts, has lifted. It's as if you just flew above a great, dark cloud to see the sun for the first time. It is hard to accept, I know, but we were nothing more than disposable entertainment to her. She used us as simple fetchers of food. She made us fight the land-striders for the entertainment of seeing us struggle and suffer and die. We could have flown anywhere and taken food from the ocean or any forest, but she sent us on raids to fetch her food from land-strider nests because she enjoyed the sport of it all. She takes pleasure in watching us suffer.}_

No! No! Simpleton! Weak-minded lizard! That cannot be! I'll prove it to myself!

 _{You don't believe me, Nightmarish Monster, and I cannot blame you. Why should you trust me? Maybe I am spewing blasphemous lies. The answer lies inside your own mind, though. Think back. Think deep. It's not like you're going anywhere anytime soon.}_

As tempting as it is to do the exact opposite just to spite her, this situation really is gnawing at my sanity. I close my eyes and dig deep into my memories. Like all dragons, I can recall every single moment I've experienced ever since the day I cracked my egg. Every sight, every sound, every impression I have picked up from another dragon, every thought that has ever crossed my mind.

I tear through all my memories, my perfectly ingrained past, like a pack of desperate, ravenous mink dragons shredding through a pile of fish. My first day alive, blind and nearly deaf as my eyes and ear canals were still forming. My first flight. The first fight I lost, the first I won. My first land-strider kill. My tributes to the queen. The fire, the blood, the death, the fight for survival and the tireless flying back and forth to bring tribute to the queen.

The more I remember, the more it hurts. Why does it _hurt_?!

My whole life was wrapped around serving and pleasing the queen who never cared for us. No, not just that. She _hated_ us! We were nothing but fodder to her - vessels of food. She would even make us fight each other for no actual reason than her own entertainment and then eat the loser who dies and, if the winner is too injured to fly, him as well. Sure, we dragons normally put on territorial displays and fight for mates, nesting grounds, and food, but we usually just assert our dominance. To fight to the death for someone else's entertainment is nothing short of degrading!

And the dragons that were captured by the land striders would never respond to us. We would call out with our projections, but receive nothing in return, even though we could tell from their hum that they were alive. The queen never _wanted_ us to hear them. She never wanted us to recognize that there could be any existence _outside_ the clutches of her… mind snare. There were so many things I saw and heard and felt, but never noticed because she told me to forget… to become blind to that which she did not want me to see. She didn't want me to recognize or question or _think_ for myself.

For my whole life, she was always controlling me so thoroughly I didn't even know I was being controlled! I was so helpless. Just a mindless thrall until… I just want to crawl back into the egg that hatched me!

Then, there were the dragons she commanded me to chase down, kill, and haul back to feed her. It always happens whenever a dragon grows too old for her to… control…

Oh… oh no. Tickle me scaleless, this cannot be! No dragon has seen the leaves grow and fall from the trees more than thirty times. Now that I look back on it, it's so _obvious_. How did I _not_ see it _before_?

How did I not _see_?!

She… I… she just… No! I… it can't be… No no no! It's like a dragon's head mounted on a stick - I don't want to stare, but I can't look away. Why am I still thinking? Why am I still questioning and analyzing? It hurts so much!

Why can't I stop?!

Now that my mind is free to wander, I can't help but wonder how old a dragon can grow before dying of some more natural cause. I'll never know because, when a dragon reaches a certain age, the queen makes him feed himself to her. It is a well-known fact that older dragons start to become more brazen and less loyal to the queen; the grip she can exert on our minds must weaken as we age. She would eat them before they cross a certain threshold by commanding them to simply fly right into her massive, awaiting maw. In the rare event when they would not comply, dragons like me would be there as the queen's loyal, unthinking thralls to kill the old ones.

I was among those who killed any rebellious old ones and fed them to the queen. Me! My own fellow dragons! I even chased down and killed the very Nightmarish Monster that spawned my own egg. The queen _made_ me… kill…

We're nothing to the queen. _Nothing_! We crack our eggs, grow up, raid, feed her, spawn some eggs, and repeat until she just _eats_ us!

All my life… this _was_ my whole life!

A farce!

A lie!

An exercise in futility and shame! To whimper and cower before her in the endless pit of depravity!

No! This cannot be! I refuse to believe it. I don't _want_ to believe it. The pain is too great! I can't take it!

Why does it _hurt_ so much?!

I must escape. Yes! That will fix things! I need to get out of here and clear my mind. It can't be healthy to be thinking so freely like this. Remembering is agony. Questioning so much is so discomforting. I… I can't…

What am I supposed to _do_ with this?!

Alright alright. I just need to stop thinking. Yes! That's it! Thinking is remembering. Thinking hurts. Thinking is bad. What would a dragon do if he was not thinking? No! Don't think about it! Just… _do_ it.

I launch myself at the stone wall. My head smacks hard against it and I stumble back, dazed.

OW!

Yes! I think I'm making progress! No, there I go, _thinking_ again. Don't think about it - don't think about _not_ thinking - just _do_ it!

I ram the wall again. It remains immobile, unlike my head.

This is good. Yes, very good. I just need to free myself. I can't be here anymore in this tiny cave, with dragons who are content with their captivity and my own thoughts and memories that hurt so much. I can tell the other dragons are trying to talk to me. I can sense their projections, but I don't even care anymore. Why won't they just shut up?

I must escape _now_! Nothing else matters!

I squeeze some fuel out of the pores all around my body and light myself ablaze. Fire flares out from my hide, illuminating the cave walls. They're all so smooth and flat. It's almost… unnatural. I frantically look about for a way out. Nothing! I can go nowhere!

I ram the wall again and suddenly notice the smell and taste of my own blood through the broken scales and hide.

I don't care! I ram the wall again and again. I want to get out! I _need_ to get out! I cannot be in here anymore with all this hatred and regret and shame and loss!

I ram the wall as hard as I can. Good, I felt that one even in my tail! Next time, I'll hit it even harder. Yes, that will work. If I can just figure out which way is up so I can… stand up… again…

It's about now that I realize the liability of starting a massive fire inside the tight confines of this small cave. The air has become thick with smoke. I can't breathe.

Good! Breathing is overrated, anyway. Who even needs air? It certainly isn't removing my humiliating past!

I just need everything to… stop.

It's just too much too bear. Too much! All my life has been nothing! _I_ have been nothing! Every accomplishment, every fight, every struggle and triumph… all for the queen. All for nothing! There is nothing! I have nothing! I _am_ nothing!

Why does it hurt so much?!

Because I'm thinking. Bad dragon! Thinking is bad!

By now, blood is dribbling down my snout from impacting the cave walls and splashing into a puddle on the ground. I don't care! I slam into the walls again and again. Either the stone will break or my body will!

Without any air left to breathe, I collapse to the ground, my strength completely expended. The red swimming in my vision gives way to a sea of black. My lungs and throat burn from so much smoke and my whole torso is heaving in futile desperation for any breathable air.

This is good. Yes, I think it is enough. No! Don't _think_ about how good it is, just _know_ that it is good. No thinking, no feeling, no pondering and digging into the past. The past is evil. It is lined with teeth that will eat me if I go there.

Like the queen's maw that eats dragons for food.

 _Argh! Stop thinking_!

Stupid land-striders. Stupid queen. Stupid _me_ for allowing myself to simply be dominated by her mind like that. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

At least the pain will end. Goodbye, cruel world. It's been fun. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Just as I'm ready to let go of this miserable life, a piece of the cave wall directly in front of my snout swings out. It's hardly large enough to squeeze my maw through, but I don't even budge. A piece of the ceiling disappears and light filters in as smoke pours out.

A gust of wind is drawn from the hole in front of my snout, bringing in fresh air. I never gave my body permission to inhale the fresh air, but it does anyway.

 _Just great! If the_ queen _isn't controlling me, my_ instincts _are._

Outside my cave, through this little opening, I can tell there are some land-striders. I can smell them and sense their passive hum. How they removed a part of the cave wall is a mystery to me, but they… they… saved me. The land-striders actually saved my life when my smoke was about to kill me.

 _Stupid, stupid land-striders! Insipid animals! I was doing just fine until you came barging in and forced me to live this miserable life a little longer!_

As if to add insult to injury, some large, delicious-smelling fish fly through the hole to land with a tantalizing plop just in front of my snout.

 _Stupid, ignorant land-striders! You don't even know what I'm going through. You have no clue what it's like!_

I collapse to the ground and let out a long-winded groan. I can hear Adder trilling and warbling a soothing song. She's actually sympathetic and is trying to comfort me, even to the end of projecting some memories of her first day after her capture, when I was still unconscious. She went through the same sort of depression. They all did. It seems every dragon that is freed from the queen's mind snare arrives at the same realization.

However, the higher you are, the farther you fall. I have no doubt it wasn't as bad for them as it is for me. I think it's because I'm the best of all the dragons and I know it that this realization hit me so hard.

I should be glad to be free from her mind snare, but to think that, for my entire past, I was just a simple, groveling, pathetic worm. This is _me_ we're talking about!

Every dragon in the queen's nest cannot think for himself. We're all mindless thralls to feed her and fight and die for her own entertainment. So it has been and so it will always be. Forever without end. Or, at least, until the queen dies of old age, because if dragons can't stop her, then what other creature in this world can?

No. She's not my queen. She is no longer my master. She is scum! She is filth! She is a demon! Yes, a demonic queen! She needs to die a horribly painful and humiliating death. Yes! That is what I will do! I now have something to live for!

 _Hmmm…_

Doing so would seem to be slightly impossible at the moment in this tiny cave, though.

Well, nothing else to do, so I stick out my tongue to brush it against the fish and flick it into my mouth. It's actually not that bad. A few days old, but that doesn't make the flavor much less desirable.

I lift up my head and look at the stone that separates me and Adder.

 _{Since you've been awake for the past couple days, Adder, what options do we have? I would gladly kill the queen or die trying, but we're trapped here.}_

The adder croons in response. _{If you were not trapped in this cave of stone and metal, you would be trapped in the queen's mind snare again. It is ironic that we have the freedom to fight her only within these confines. I have learned what all dragons end up doing when they are captured and freed from the demonic queen's mind snare and you will see for yourself, soon. By the way, I hope you don't mind if this plan involves you dying to a land-strider.}_

Wait, what? Ha! She must be joking. Me, die to a land-strider? How could that even happen? It took a solid twenty of them to take me down and more than a few died or were injured in the process. Then again, I had simply accepted my pending death only a moment ago when they saved me.

I still haven't forgiven them for that.

Still, though, I am far too powerful to be subdued by a single land-strider. I'm about to really lay into that insolent sack of scales when an overbearingly cheerful dragon cuts in.

 _{Welcome to a freedom you have never known!}_

 _{I was going to say that.}_

 _{Well, you didn't so I did.}_

 _{I was waiting for the right moment!}_

 _{You're_ always _waiting for the right moment. That's why I'm the one who is always starting our fires. I'm a dragon of action, unlike you.}_

 _{Don't make me bite you!}_

Great. Just great. A two-headed dragon. Goodbye, sanity. Hello, madness. Please kill me now!

########

* * *

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CLANG!

I snap my eyes open and look around. Darkness greets me. I guess I drifted off to sleep and it must be night again as I can hardly see any light coming through the narrow, vertical slit in the wall of this little cave.

I hear a loud, rumbling, groaning sound of something large grinding along, then a loud clunk and all is silent. Well, not _all_ sounds have ceased. I can still hear the whistling of the wind and pitter-patter-plop-plop of rain slapping the stone outside in a heavy downpour.

In the dim light filtering into my cave, my jaw drops to the ground at an impossible sight. The stone wall in front of me is… alive. It's moving, pulsating, breathing like a living creature in tempo with the gusts of wind. I experimentally reach a wingtip forward and press against the wall and it moves a little, just as if it's as light as… well, suffice to say it's moving freely in much the same way that boulders don't.

 _{This is the part where you leave your little cave. Don't let the wall swing shut on your tail on your way out.}_

I haven't heard _that_ dragon speak, yet, but I have a fairly solid suspicion who it is. All the other dragons are currently sleeping. I can tell because I'm projecting something like a gentle tap on the snout with my thoughts, but eliciting no response. This one, though, has been quiet until now.

 _{You are the little mink dragon?}_

It is a common enough imagery used to refer to one of those little ones… the terrors that are terrible. It must be a male, judging by the nuances of his passive hum.

 _{Yes, I am a scaly, winged mink.}_ There was a certain air of satire and humor in his projected thoughts. _{My name is Nose. You can leave your cave, by the way. The land-striders are letting you out.}_

 _Wait, he has a_ name _?_

It doesn't matter. This stone wall is quite intriguing. I cautiously push a wingtip against it and it moves out. Actually, it's two stone walls that swing out like… like… my wings when I fly, but these stones are moving sideways instead of up and down.

As I push through the opening, a crack of lightning fills the sky with white light, revealing just how free I am _not_.

Outside of my cave, I'm greeted by an even larger cave. Well, I suppose it's not really a cave, but an unnaturally round depression in the ground. It, too, has unnaturally smooth walls, but these are completely littered with fire scars from what must have been dragons fighting. Up above, A large spider web that smells of iron is sprawled out to prevent me from flying out of here.

The web looks sturdy, but I know from having played around with land-striders' shiny claws that my fire could weaken it. Maybe, I can break out. Maybe, if I were to escape from here, but stay near the land-striders, I would still be safe. Maybe, it would be somehow possible to escape from here without losing my mind again to demonic queen.

Maybe…

No. To escape from here is to go back to _her_. Earlier today, before I nodded off, the other dragons explained it all. It's only a theory, really.

The land-striders exhibit an amusing ability to create thoughts. They can see that which has never passed before their eyes and hear sounds that have never reached their ears. They can think thoughts they never learned and create from nothing within their own minds. It is the only explanation of how they can conceive the artifacts they make that allow creatures so small and frail and flammable to survive even a single dragon raid.

That, combined with how vastly inferior their intelligence is compared to us dragons and how incapable they are of projecting clearly defined thoughts or even hearing our projected thoughts, could explain why I am no longer under the demonic queen's control. Often enough, we can glean at least a sense of what land-striders are saying, but that only exhibits the disorder within. All their projections are so disorganized, disjointed… _chaotic_.

Simply being near these little critters and their messy thought projections is what's preventing the queen from claiming our minds again. What other explanation is there, after all? We can rule out the idea that the queen simply stopped controlling us because it's not like she can single us out. That's just not how projections work. Sure, just like the black dragon, she can channel her projections into narrow, far-reaching bands, but anyone within range would hear her. The land-striders must be interfering with her projections in some way.

That could also explain why the queen never allowed us to stay near land-striders for too long. She would always call us back after a certain duration into a raid no matter how much or little food we had collected by then. She did that so she wouldn't lose her grasp on our minds. If she lost _her_ dragons, then she would lose her source of easy food and entertainment.

 _Foul demon! Beneath my scorn!_

Another flash of lightning draws my attention to two land-striders standing above me, on a ledge, out of reach behind the iron web and safe from my fire with all this water pouring down on me. One is large and ungainly and I recognized its - no, I think it must be a _he_ from the timbre of his emotional hum - _his_ wooden leg with my new tooth marks in it. The other is that little fish bone I almost roasted at the very start of the raid.

 _Huh. Small world._

The big one has distrustful eyes on me, but there's something very attention-grabbing about the little one. I slowly rise up and wrap the talons of my wings and legs around the thick strands of the iron web above and cautiously crawl towards them, upside down, cutting an angle past them instead of straight towards them so as to avoid spooking them.

The larger land-strider extends a protective front leg in front of the smaller one, using some sort of curved, dull iron claw to hold him back. During the raid, he had a much different shiny claw, but this one seems to be suited more for pulling things in close to him in a non-lethal manner instead of slicing through scales and hide.

 _Are their claws interchangeable? Can they shed them and grow them back at will?_

The little one doesn't have any sort of claws at the ends of his talons. Maybe they haven't grown, yet? He must be a hatchling for how small he is and… and… his eyes…

I can't recall any other land-strider or even dragon ever staring at me like this. They always look at my body, my fangs and wings and claws, judging how to fight me. This Fishbone, though, he's looking right into my eyes… not to see if I will strike from the left or the right… he's looking into me, _through_ me. Wonder and awe waft off of him, not the usual hatred and derision. The passive hum I can pick up, the way he's reaching with his front paw… it's as if he's not even afraid of me.

He's not speaking with his lips, but everything about him is saying one thing very clearly. _{What are you, really? Could it be that you are not what I was raised to believe you should be? I see the same dragon everyone else sees, but you're different. How? Why?}_

It's as if _both_ of us are trying to come to terms with what the other is. Now that land-striders aren't tribute to the queen, what _are_ they? Are they _really_ as cruel as I have been led to believe? Their thoughts are quiet and scattered, but this little one has a certain boldness and sincere, confident insistence that does not fit his appearance.

This Fishbone is an odd one for sure. I have a feeling that his lack of fear is because he knows better than to feel threatened by a dragon that just had his soul smashed, burned, and drowned in a sea of sorrow. Then again, land-striders aren't the brightest. Maybe he's just too dense to recognizing mortal danger when he sees it?

Could he, too, have a queen that tells him what to think and what not to think? Could he be coming to terms with the understanding which comes from shaking free from his own mind snare?

It's almost as if he's the first land-strider ever to see a dragon as something other than a mindless killer.

A rude shove from the large, stick-legged one sends the Fishbone stumbling backward and the moment is past.

 _Oh well. I guess that's that._

This heavy rain falling on my underside is nice, though. I extend one wing out while using the other to cling to the iron web to slowly lower myself down. I might as well take advantage of this rain, so I wriggle around on the flat, stone ground, then roll over again to wash off any blood or other grime that had dried onto my scales.

 _Much better! Right, before this whole land-strider staring contest, I was... Ah! The mink dragon_.

 _{So, little mink dragon, you have a name, then? You must think yourself to be very important.}_

A high-pitched snort drifts out from one of the little caves.

 _{I suppose we have imitated the land-striders in some ways. Spending so much time around them can do that to even a dragon. It sounds haughty to have a name, I know. Only the queen gets some sort of name or title. However, land-striders give a name to everything. Every land-strider, every island, every star in the sky. They even name their shiny claws. So, we gave each other names. The other dragons call me Nose because I have a fascination with biting down on those large, squishy, chewy things whenever it's my turn to train the land-striders.}_

Great. More answers that only lead to more questions.

I walk over to where I can smell the mink dragon - excuse me, _Nose_ \- and gently tap on the stone wall of his cave with my snout.

OUCH! Still sensitive!

The _land-striders_ could be named Nose as well for how much of a disturbing fascination they have for hitting my snout with their stones on a stick. However, that was nothing compared to the abuse I inflicted upon myself not too long ago by ramming my head into the stone wall repeatedly. To suddenly realize that, for my entire past, I was nothing more than a groveling worm to that demonic queen, was a roaring inferno of agony I have never felt before. Now, though, it has cooled off to a somber depression of ash.

 _{Why am I here, Nose?}_

 _{I suppose the answer to that question starts with you cracking the egg that spawned you. Then again, if you are referring to this specific location, I think you were part of that last raid and were captured by the land-striders.}_

 _{I am officially threatening to eat you!}_

From the other side of the stone wall, I hear a tittering warble.

 _{Look around and I think you will find your answer.}_

I suppose I might as well. As I scan the area, I reach out with my mind to Nose again.

 _{You said you have been here for a while. Just how old are you?}_

 _{I am probably the oldest dragon you have ever encountered aside from the queen.}_ There was a sort of sad acceptance to his projections. _{I have seen the leaves grow and fall twelve times since I was captured. Were I not captured, I was old enough that the queen would have eaten me soon after that raid. The land-striders keep me around because I don't eat much and I teach their young ones an important lesson about judging a dragon by appearance alone.}_

For how freely dragons can share thoughts with each other, it's anyone's guess what knowledge or wisdom we have lost in the queen's nest that other dragons in far-flung lands would take for granted. Thirty is about the age a dragon is typically fed to the queen before he becomes too rebellious for her liking. Maybe Nose has gathered some knowledge in his time on this world that the other dragons from the nest haven't had the time to gain?

Nose's projected thoughts include memories of his time here. It was all routine. Eat, sleep, try to survive another round of young land-striders trying to kill him, then repeat. Forever. It was far from a fulfilling life.

 _So, no, then. He has gained absolutely nothing in his old age._

Despite all his attempts to reach out to the land-striders and show that dragons are not simple, mindless, hateful creatures that are always seeking to kill, he has seen no progress. Many times in the past, he has demonstrated familiarity with their fighting tactics that he gained from experience and has even manipulated the young land-striders into fighting each other. He even had opportunities where he would pounce on a hapless land-strider, but let him go in a show of mercy, but even _that_ was not recognized by anyone.

No matter what, the land-striders will always see what the queen has turned dragons into under her mind snare - mindless beasts.

If there was no queen, we would live our own lives in seclusion. Sure, isolated conflicts may break out between dragons and land-striders, but a dragon would sooner avoid unnecessary conflict if he can find good land for hunting, sleeping, and mating. There are plenty of islands in the sea and very few of them are actually hospitable to land-striders. A dragon would love to nest among the mountainous crags and caves that land-striders seem to detest while the little critters love the wide-open flatlands we deem unsafe.

We could actually coexist peacefully. Ya know, as long as they don't go out of their way to hunt us down or something like that.

 _If wishes were fishes…_

Ah! There. Through the dim of night, I can spot another little cave in the walls that surround me. Despite how dark it is outside, the fact that I can see one part of the wall that doesn't have the torrential downpour of rain running down is a helpful clue as to what I'm looking at. As I step closer, I can see and smell a pile of fish.

 _All for me? Don't mind if I do!_

As I set into inhaling the fish, I ask Nose, _{Why do the land-striders make me come out here to feed me? They tossed fish into my cave earlier.}_

As if in answer to my question, I suddenly hear a loud, deep groaning, like a rotten tree falling down a hill. I flick my head around to see that there are stone walls closing me in.

I probably could have reacted in time to escape, but I just don't care anymore. I may not be the smartest dragon in the raid, but I'm no fool. I know that the land-striders actually saved me from the demonic queen. I may yet forgive them for having stopped me from killing myself earlier, but now that the heat of the moment has passed, I can see that all that's left now is to make the best of what I have. The other dragons here have shared their plans for using the land-striders to strike out at the queen and I figure it'd be best to play nice and follow along.

Besides, it's not so bad to follow someone else's lead if it's by my own free will for once.

Through the stone walls, I can still hear Nose. _{I owe you an apology. I should have warned you about that, but they closed you in a lot sooner than the other nightmares that are monstrous. Take it as a compliment. They must really fear you. They will have you move to another small cave again in a few days. Take your time, run and fly around below the iron web. It is the only opportunity to move about like that and they will not hurry you along unless you take all day. There are four of us here, after all, and we all need to get our turn, too. Well, five, depending on how you count Spit and Sputter. That's the two-headed dragon, by the way.}_

I snort derisively at that last part. Leave it up to a two-headed dragon to claim to be twice as important as anyone else. Of course it would receive two names because two heads _surely_ means something… of any importance… at all…

 _{Nose, do I have a name, yet?}_

 _{The adder wanted to call you Spite because you never share your tribute. I want to call you Loud because I could hear your roar from very far away, even through these stone walls. How about Spite Loud?}_

Wow. Just… wow. Those are some amazing thought processes that went into that. I was actually afraid they'd target the fact that my fuel is so viscous and green it looks like snot and name me something like Snot Loud. I think that would be even worse.

I think no response is the best response to being given such a name. The ire in my passive projection should suffice. Looking and feeling around my new cave sounds a lot more interesting at the moment, anyway.

It's nicer here. There was a certain corner of my old cave in which I… marked my territory. Very thoroughly. Repeatedly. It was the one and only spot that had something that wasn't just hard stone and also happened to be at the lowest point. There was a matting of some sort of long, fibrous, dead, dry plant matter that seemed to have no nutritional benefit to any living creature. At least it was on the far side of the cave from the pool of water from which I drank, which was fed by a little trickle from the rain pouring outside.

This cave, though, is free from my own excrements, has another clean pile of that plant matter, and doesn't smell so rank, so that's a marked improvement. It even has a similar spot in the center where the stone is worn very smooth - probably from the countless previous draconic occupants - for a very comfortable sleep.

Maybe the land-strider's captivity won't be so bad. Anything is better than the demonic queen's mind snare. Literally anything. Maybe I'll come to like it here.

Maybe.

Either way, I'm promised an interesting show tomorrow as Adder trains her first batch of land-striders.


	3. How to Train Your Land-Strider

**A/N:**

So, I have a pop culture Easter egg hunt every chapter and you probably found a couple eggs in Chapter 2. They were from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The title is a line from Marvin, a manically depressed (but hyper-intelligent) robot. In one scene, he destroyed a ship by talking to the ship's AI, causing it to commit suicide.

The second is the ubiquitous, "Don't panic," as the Monstrous Nightmare came to terms with his predicament.

When the Monstrous Nightmare was about to snuff out his own life, his last thought was, "So long and thanks for all the fish," which was what the dolphins said as they left Earth just before it was destroyed. After many failed attempts to warn the humans of their impending doom (these messages were misinterpreted as amusing attempts to punch footballs or whistle for tidbits), their last message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double backwards somersault through a hoop, whilst whistling 'The Star-Spangled Banner'.

Lastly, Nose, the Terrible Terror, has been in captivity for 12 years. He was 30 when he was captured, so his age at the moment is… 42. Please excuse me, now, as I guffaw at your face-palming.

Sadly, I couldn't find a way to squeeze in the bowl of petunias, but Agrajag deserves a shout-out, anyway.

For this chapter, my Easter Eggs are particularly uninspired. You'll either recognize it immediately after reading the title or have to wait until the A/N at the start of the next chapter… or Google it.

* * *

 **Everything Wrong with How to Train Your Land-strider in One Day or Less**

Life in a tiny, dark cave.

You would think it would be boring. You would think it would be frustrating. You would think it would be maddening.

You would be absolutely right!

Fortunately, us dragons have ways of coping with such situations. Even though we're separated by stone, we're never really alone.

Today is the Deadly Adder's turn to train the land-striders. We all agreed to name her Greedy - a fitting name chosen by me since she chose to name me Spite.

As Greedy steps out of her cave and into the light of dawn, she looks around to take in her surroundings. The area under the iron web has transformed into a maze of wooden walls. They're tall enough that she can't see over them, even with legs as long as a land-strider is tall, but there's still clearance under the iron web to hop on top. Beyond the iron web, an endless, bright, blue sky stretches out above, just _begging_ me to spread my wings and fly… were I not stuck here… in my tiny, dark cave.

It's bearable, though, thanks to an agreement we all made, as all other captive dragons have made in the past, to help keep each other sane. Only one of us at a time is let out of our cave, but if that dragon projects all of his impressions in real time - what he sees, hears, and feels - then we _all_ benefit from the experience and can enjoy the warmth of the sun, the wind under our wings, and songs of the birds chirping, even though we're stuck in our caves.

Keeping up a constant projection of one's own senses is not a normal thing for a dragon to do. Usually, communication happens in short, discrete bursts. When flying through the hollow mountain of the queen's nest, we would avoid colliding into each other - a situation where nobody wins and everybody loses - by projecting flashes of information for the dragons around us. I would project a sense of proximity and the identity of the dragon in concern or the urge to veer right when I fly past another dragon, for instance.

A few times, a friendly dragon has projected an image of a shiny claw sticking out of my flank, as seen through his eyes, as a way of informing me that I had taken more than just a land-strider back to the nest.

What Greedy is working on now is to maintain a _continuous_ flow of projected thoughts so we can all see the world through her eyes. It takes some concentration at first, but becomes almost passive with the passage of time.

Receiving such a steady stream of impressions is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. It's like _I_ am out there - except I have no control and am in the inferior body of an adder. Her eyes - no, more like _our_ eyes - which look out the sides of our head instead of straight ahead, can instantly take in each new area of the maze as we explore it. It's disorienting, compounded by the fact that the body is not responding to my impulses, but I'm told I'll get used to it quite quickly.

In fact, as we casually strut through the wooden maze, searching out the young land-striders, Nose fills us in on what all us captive dragons have learned. Over many generations, as dragons are periodically killed and new ones are captured, there has always been at least one alive at all times to pass on any accumulated knowledge to the next.

Over time, we have accumulated a wealth of knowledge about the land-striders. We've learned tips on how to decipher their messy thought projections when they think with their lips and that, for instance, bobbing their head up and down means acknowledgement while rotating it left and right is negation. We've learned that, when they bear their teeth, it's not a display of aggression but joy or mirth. A land-strider might even give out a stuttering sort of bellow as a laugh when they find something humorous.

One interesting thing I learned is that land-striders don't have claws that grow on their soft, little talons. They're not detachable, but rather, the claws were never a part of their body in the first place. The critters make their own claws and grab onto them with their talons.

In fact, it's not really talons that grip the claws. Anatomically speaking, their bone structure isn't all that different from a two-legged dragon such as myself or Greedy, minus the tail, of course; I have no clue how they stand upright without it. I used to think they had four legs and only walked on two, but the front legs are really wings. Well, not wings, of course, but in terms of bone structure, they have arms and fingers that hold shiny claws instead of giving support to wing membranes.

Stick-leg is one of the few exceptions as he had lost part of his arm and, thus, his ability to hold onto shiny claws with his fingers. Somehow, though, he found a way to attach them to the stump and can change out one shiny claw for another at will.

Also, they're not as hairy as I had always believed. I had always thought it strange that their wool and hair was so reminiscent of very animals we steal from them. Aside from the mane on top and front of their head, they're actually mostly hairless and quite susceptible to the elements. To protect themselves, they take the hide from dead animals and use that as a sort of auxiliary skin. I'll take my good old scales any day, but I've never given land-striders the credit they deserve for overcoming their own shortcomings like that.

I believe all of that was communicated in the time it took us to make a single hop through this wooden maze.

These particular land-striders in the maze with us - six, to be precise - are relatively young and are here to learn how to fight us dragons. We are held in these tiny caves and let out one at a time to familiarize them with how we move and attack. They believe we're just stupid animals acting on instinct alone. They believe we're only trying to survive to see the next day. They believe they are in complete control.

They are all so _wrong_!

What else can we do, though, but try to fight against the demonic queen from under this iron web? I would sooner die a thousand time than become the queen's mindless thrall ever again. So, we rob her of her food supply. Since she depends on her dragons to feed her, killing the dragons would limit her supply of food. She is so large and ungainly that there's no hope that she could feed herself.

Using these land-striders, we could starve the queen to death!

Yes, it may sound cruel or traitorous at first glance, but ensuring that more of the queen's dragons die is actually a merciful thing to do. If being her mindless thrall is far worse than death by a great degree, then death is a great gain. It's the fate I would have chosen… if I had the luxury of choice. The dragons under the queen's control are _alive_ in the sense that they are breathing and moving, but one might argue they aren't really _living_.

It's not the most elegant solution, nor a quick one. We may be doomed to fail, being only a few dragons on one of many islands, out of contact with the others. However, it's the only thing worth living for and scavengers can't be picky.

It's not like any dragon will ever escape her mind snare in any other way.

Well, alright, there was _one_ exception. One dragon, even larger than myself, with bronze scales and four wings, managed to escape from the queen's nest. With how long the raid was going, he was old enough that the queen's grip on his mind was starting to weaken and he became self-aware.

He was tearing through a land-strider nest when he came across one of their tiny hatchlings. Stunned, he simply crouched there, staring in amazement at the helpless little creature. It looked up at the dragon with such trust and amazement and wonder that killing it seemed so wrong. In fact, doing _anything_ the queen was commanding him to do felt wrong as he came to the same realization we all do after escaping her mind snare.

A female land-strider came charging in, ground to a halt, and they stared at each other in much the same way the Fishbone and I had last night. The dragon was scared off when the Beast found them, but he grabbed the female in his talons and skimmed past the trapped dragons to share his impressions with them before flying off to wherever the winds would take him. Suffice to say he was full of confusion, anguish, and doubt.

Whatever happened to that dragon is unknown. He was the only one to ever escape the queen without being killed or captured by land-striders and, thanks to him, she is more hasty in consuming older dragons. With the queen's heightened vigilance in ensuring that never happens again, there is no room to hope for any repeat performance.

So, we train the land-striders. We teach them how to kill and capture us. We punish them for their mistakes - usually in a non-lethal manner - allow ourselves to take some hits to boost their confidence, and kill some that are particularly weak, slow, stupid, small, or otherwise unfit for killing dragons.

In the end, I suppose both land-striders and captured dragons are working towards the same goal, but they really have no clue just how fortunate they are.

All of this was primarily told by the dragon that looks like a boulder, eats rocks, and spits out the molten slag. In a blindingly brilliant stroke of ingenuity, she was named Rock. Go figure.

Just yesterday, while I was out cold, Rock was training against this very group of land-striders. Like most of her kind, she is very patient and so the large, sour, stick-legged land-strider who seems to be organizing these training sessions likes to use her at first. When released on the young land-striders, she simply lapped up some loose stones, buzzed around with her short, bee-like wings, and hurled molten fireballs at them. Of course, she took careful aim to hit only the wooden carapace. That, too, it would seem, does not grow on a land-strider, but is somehow made from trees using their shiny claws.

Rock's training session had ended when one little land-strider, the fishbone that I saw the previous night, curled up against the stone wall in an amazing display of fear and panic. We never kill on the first day, no matter how unfit a land-strider is, so she decided to waste inordinate amounts of time hocking a fire loogie, giving the stick-legged one time to hobble up and shove her head so she would miss her shot. It had the intended two-fold effect of instilling a respect for how deadly a dragon could be and also sparing his life.

A loud squawk jerks my attention back to all the impressions pouring out of Greedy and I allow myself to sink deeper into a trance where I am, for all intents and purposes, sitting behind her eyes. Our talons strike the stone in another single step and we slide to round a corner of the maze, anxious to find our new "playmates".

We spot our first target, who is completely and unforgivably oblivious to how dead he would be right now if we were not sparing him. I can tell Greedy is unsure of how to handle him, but she definitely wants some action.

 _{Oh, great, it's that fishbone from earlier. Is it alright if I take him out now so he doesn't hinder the others?}_

 _{No!}_

Wait, _I_ said that. I didn't mean to, but… but… there it is. Huh. Well, I guess I must admit I do kinda like that fishbone. He was the first and only land-strider who actually looked me in the eyes and had anything other than disgust, fear, or anger in his emotional hum. I'll admit I found his sense of wonder to be… intriguing.

He's turned towards us, but completely oblivious to our presence. All he's doing is looking up at Stick-leg, holding his broad, shiny claw to the side, doing that thing where they think with their lips. He's asking about some sort of dragon that has never been seen by any land-strider.

 _Wait, could he be referring to the black dragon? I guess his body was found and his hide will now adorn a land-strider as a second skin. Good! His death is a significant loss to the queen._

Settling on a compromise, Greedy takes careful aim and lets out a narrow gout of her white-hot fire. What was once a shiny claw on a stick suddenly melts into a heap of slag as it slaps against the wall and falls to the ground.

 _{Focus, Fishbone! You're not even trying!}_

Fishbone reacts to this merciful display of how he should be ash by first looking at the end of his charred stick where his shiny claw _used_ to be, then around himself in a daze before seeing the blue and white scaled threat. His brilliant plan to evade us starts with a few indecisive half-steps - right, left, right, left. Eventually, he arrives at the brilliant conclusion that actually moving _somewhere_ would be a good idea as we send him along with a lunge and a snap of our teeth.

A quick hop and a flap of our wings - no, _her_ wings… this will take some getting used to - takes us up on _top_ of the wooden walls.

I project to Greedy, _{That's not how you climb. You have to wrap your wings around the top so you can crawl up and over the wall. Don't rely on your legs, only.}_

 _{Don't tell me how to use my own body! I'm an Adder, not a Nightmare. Don't make me stop projecting my impressions and leave you to stare at the walls of your little cave.}_

I let out a soft groan. _Sheesh, females._

 _{Fine, fine, do things your way, silly.}_

She's managing well enough, I suppose. Maybe being lighter than me is what's allowing her to get away with hardly ever using her wings to move around. Either way, hopping around on top of the maze sure makes this game more interesting. As we jump from perch to perch, Greedy chirps and warbles her joy.

 _{This is really fun! It's as if they're_ trying _to give me an advantage by keeping the land-striders between these walls so only I can skip above. Hey, you down there, chubby one, don't forget I have quills. Get that carapace up and stop dragging it on the ground!}_

We bristle the quills that line our tail. A quick flick sends a volley shooting towards him. He responds appropriately by bringing up his wooden carapace. Of course, Greedy wasn't trying to _kill_ him. She didn't put nearly as much power into that as she could have and even carefully aimed specifically for the wooden carapace.

Apparently, the land-strider doesn't realize this and calls out his doubts about our teaching methods.

 _{Don't worry pudgy land-strider,}_ Greedy encourages in a way she knows he is too deaf to hear. _{I won't kill you unless you really deserve it. We need you to learn how to kill us and grow up big and strong so you can starve the queen!}_

We jump down to the stone floor to be confronted by two almost identical land-striders. They grind to a halt just in front of us. The way our eyes look out from the side of our head from behind a large snout makes it hard to see them without flicking our head to the side.

Rock decides to give some more instruction, here. _{Oh, these two. Trust me when I tell you they are more likely to hurt each other than you. Just give them a moment to see if they have learned to pay attention to the dragon, yet, instead of trying to stare each other down}_

Greedy complies and we stand there, playfully chirping at them. They continue to shove each other around, trying to claim a presence in Greedy's so-called "blind spot" directly in front of her snout. I mean, can't they see that we can simply turn our head to see them? Otherwise, it would be a massive evolutionary flaw. Sure, not being a Nightmarish Monster is a flaw, already, but she's still a _dragon_ for roaring out loud!

Out of boredom, we let off a blast of fire to send them running.

They were in a _blind_ spot, yes. _Deaf_ spot? Not so much.

Content to allow them to skitter to safety, we settle into casually strutting around inside the wooden maze, giving out some playful chirps and caws, listening for the scuttling of land-striders nearby.

Our attention is seized by a couple of them performing a very unnecessary roll over their wooden carapace to cross from one cover to the next. Sure enough, Fishbone trundles after them, trying the same inefficient roll when simply running would have been better, and ends up sprawling on the ground. We lunge forward and snap at him to hasten him to his feet.

A hop takes us up on top of the maze again. New targets found - a male and a female, but not the ones who previously tried hiding directly in front of us - we hop down to the stone floor and wait to see what they would do.

Nothing could prepare me for what meets my eyes - errr, Greedy's eyes. _Our_ eyes. The female is about to throw her shiny claw and we brace ourself to deflect it with the line of long horns that fan out from the back of our head. However, a male shoves her to the side to throw his own. It bounces harmlessly off the wall somewhere between them and us, and Greedy lets out a fairly decent imitation of a mocking land-strider laugh.

It has the desired effect. The male's emotional hum makes a sharp transition from pride to shame. He starts babbling some lame excuse about the sun in his eyes.

 _{Silly land-strider.}_

We shoot a gout of fire and they all flee down one of the paths, so we give chase. The male breaks off down another path, but Greedy continues chasing the female, who whips around a sharp turn and we end up crashing into the wooden wall. No, not because Greedy is clumsy, but because she had to jump to avoid stepping on _someone_ who was oblivious to the dragon with teeth and quills and fire and claws charging towards him.

Greedy hisses in anger.

 _{He has the survival instincts of a delicate flower!}_

And who, exactly might that someone be? None other than Fishbone himself, of course!

As we rebound off the collapsing wall, I can see - through Greedy's admittedly impressive peripheral vision - Fishbone just reflexively hunch inward, flick his eyes over to see the rampaging dragon next to him, then go on ignoring us in favor of talking to Stick-leg through the iron web above. Greedy doesn't want to kill him, so she compromises with a flick of her tail against his head before continuing to chase the others.

Wait a moment. I think I figured it out.

I broke him.

I broke Fishbone.

Greedy has passed up as many opportunities to kill him as I have teeth in my mouth. The only reason he's alive is that she is choosing to lean towards safe instead of sorry when it comes to killing or just scaring the land-striders. Fishbone should be dead several times over by now because he's simply refusing to acknowledge the threat we dragons pose. I think _I_ had something to do with that.

The previous night, during that rainstorm, as we stared at each other, I felt some sort of… connection. I felt like he understood me better than any other land-strider - better than most _dragons_ for that matter.

In hindsight, I was subconsciously projecting reassurances as I didn't want to spook him. I simply did not want that moment of studying each other and grappling for understanding to end. In all that, maybe I broke his survival instincts to stay clear of us dangerous, fang-chomping, fire-spewing, quill-shooting, claw-slashing dragons.

Then again, there's still that niggling doubt in the back of my mind. Sure, maybe he's simply very stupid. Then again, maybe he's extremely perceptive. Maybe he could tell that Greedy would not actually kill him. Maybe he could read her intents in some way. It is known that land-striders see with more than their eyes and hear with more than their ears with all their creating of new thoughts, so maybe this was a symptom of that?

A loud crash draws me back into a trance of watching Greedy rampage around under the iron web. She casually topples one of the few remaining walls still standing in pursuit of a land-striders and is having the time of her life. I certainly don't want to miss out on being a part of _that_!

We're still chasing that one female who seems to be the most competent and determined of the group. She rounds another corner and, in the interest of keeping things interesting, we allow ourself to crash into another wall, knocking it down, then rebound off it and continue the chase. A quick hop on top of a wall and over to the next and we realize we actually overshot and she's behind us now.

Actually, I guess Greedy really _is_ having a hard time rounding these corners. Land-striders can zip around the bend very quickly with their shorter legs. This female is pretty clever and resourceful to maintain her balance around a particularly sharp turn. She'll hook her claw on the inside corner to clear the turn faster or scrape her carapace against the ground to slow down while dodging to the side so that we overshoot and knock down yet another wall.

On the other wing, while Greedy has powerful legs that allow her to run fast and quickly hop up and down, she has relatively little strength side to side. Unlike me, she doesn't have any talons along the leading edge of her wings to grab the inside corner around a turn. The land-striders are starting to recognize this and have begun to adjust how they run away to take advantage of this. That's… clever.

 _Still, though, what kind of land-striders would train with dragons capable of wiping out their entire training grounds so quickly?_

Our heartbeat thrums in our abdomen as we push off the toppling wall to lunge and snap at the female's non-existent tail. She makes a few leaps up the inclined slope of one wall that's sagging against another. As her perch starts to tip over, she jumps forward to land in a roll, but is intercepted by-

 _{Oh you have got to be_ kidding _me!}_

Yep. Greedy is not thrilled about Fishbone interrupting her joyous chase by becoming an obstacle. Again.

To provide some sort of alibi for not crushing them both under our talons or immediately charring them to ash, we slam into the ground and allow our momentum to carry us into the last couple walls that are - were - still standing. We dive down low so they collapse on top of us, giving the land-striders an opportunity to flee to safety while we work on shifting our talons under us again to shake off the wood.

They must be scampering away by now and… and… taking a nap on the ground.

Greedy hisses in frustration. _{That's it! I'm burning Fishbone to a pile of ash right now! I know you like him, Spite, but he has interrupted my games for the last time.}_

 _{I must admit you're right, Greedy. He is a hindrance to our mission.}_

I really do like him, but I stand by what I said. We must think objectively. If Fishbone is allowed to continue like this, then others will only trip over him and become tribute to the queen. The weak have no place where only the strong can survive.

Nose jumps in with some sage advice. _{Don't burn him with fire. Bite off his head. The sight of blood and watching someone instantly die will make a huge impression on the others.}_

The position Fishbone and that female land-strider are in is, ummmm, awkward. She's sprawled out on top of him, clearly trying to get up and away, but her shiny claw is engaged into his wooden carapace. It's like he's holding her down. And are they… mating? With a fire-breathing dragon staring them down?

No, Fishbone wouldn't be _that_ stupid, right?

Right?

We charge forward, but the female land-strider manages to stand up and swing her shiny claw - with Fishbone's carapace still stuck to it - at our snout. The impact stuns us for a moment and we stumble backward from the blow.

 _{That hurt! I think I like her. She's feisty!}_

Before Greedy can retaliate, Rock speaks up. _{This is as good of an ending as any for this training session. Just walk back to your cave and they will think that female scared you off.}_

 _{But Fishbone is still alive. He needs to die or he'll drag down everyone else!}_

 _{Trust me, Greedy. Now is not the time and we need an alibi for you to go to your cave.}_

Nose says nothing, but I can tell he's seething at this turn of events. Greedy huffs her disappointment and turns back to her cave.

 _{Fine!}_

As she walks back to her cave, she casts a look back at the land-striders. Fishbone is curled up on the ground like a hatchling that just cracked his egg, receiving some very venomous reprimands from that female who could have died because of his incompetence.

 _{Figure out which side you're on!}_

Ouch. That was the female land-strider beating down Fishbone with her words. It's a bit mean, though, to imply he's against fighting dragons just because he's bad at it. Maybe he's mentally challenged, but that doesn't mean he's siding with us. Well, technically, they all _are_ siding with us since we're all unified against the queen, but they don't know it.

Still, I hope he listens to her. I kinda like him, but he needs to pull his weight if he doesn't want to get snuffed out. Hopefully, her sharp reprimands help him improve. If I broke Fishbone, maybe she can fix him.

If she can't, we'll just have to allow him to die.

########

* * *

########

 _{Can anybody hear me? What is happening? I'm so confused!}_

Well, that's new. No, not the emotions or the content of that projected thought, as it summarizes my whole life for the past few days, whoever just said that isn't one of us. There's a familiar scent to the thought…

Aha! The black dragon. If he's projecting thoughts, then he must be alive. He survived whatever had knocked him out of the sky during the raid.

 _I guess those inanimate wooden objects he targets really_ do _fight back, then._

Greedy projects an image of herself and the black dragon - a common greeting to communicate who you are and with whom you are speaking. The other dragons are doing likewise, so I suppose I may as well. With that array of sensor lobes all around the base of the black dragon's head, allowing him to project his thoughts from wherever he is, he should also be able to hear us even though our projections are not as loud.

 _{Yes, I am the black dragon. I was knocked out of the sky during the last raid and am crippled. I am free from the queen's control, but trapped in a cove and cannot escape.}_

 _Trapped but free. That has a familiar ring to it._

I see a black tail. There used to be a pair of matching fins at the end, but now there is only one. In place of the other is a painful looking wound that's already healing over pretty well.

We all ask the obvious question. _{How did this happen to you?}_

Green grass appears as I focus on the black dragon's projected thoughts. A forest, broken trees, and a trench in the dirt, gouged out by his own body from impacting and sliding across the ground after his fall. There was a struggle the entire preceding night and that day as he fought against vines that were tightly wrapped around him.

The struggling ceased, though, as he realized the queen was gone. Freed from her grip, the same realizations that dawned on me had slammed into him. Injured, tired, angry, depressed, he simply lay there, wishing for death to end the suffering that comes from remembering the past. Maybe a pack of wolves would come and end his misery. Or a bear might bite into his neck. That would be even more efficient!

The black dragon didn't get any wolves or bears, though. When he heard the footsteps of a land-strider approaching, he made no move to protect himself. It was obvious from the smell of this land-strider and the vines that knocked him out of the sky that this is the one that shot him down and has come to finish the deed.

He stretched out his neck and opened an eye to look up at the hunter that had the power and speed to knock him out of the sky. Death was a highly desired release after a whole night of remembering his subjection to the demonic queen. Still, he wanted to know what mighty creature managed to so effortlessly knock him out of the sky.

Roaring chortles erupt from all of our little caves as we all behold the black dragon's mighty slayer.

 _This cannot be. It just can't be! Ha! Of all the land-striders on this island, who was it that took out the oh-so-haughty, favorite of the queen, black dragon?_

 _None other than the weak and clumsy Fishbone himself!_

Yes, the very creature I almost roasted at the start of the raid, the same one who should have died many times during the last training session. The stunted, brain-damaged creature stared down at the black dragon.

With the tiniest shiny claw I have ever seen!

Fishbone - excuse me, the fearsome dragon slayer - did that thinking with his lips, but the scattered projections could be pieced together well enough. Little Fishbone would gain so much by killing the black dragon and bringing back some token of the deed. The dragon's head would be far too heavy for that twig to carry, but if he brings back the heart and some scales, he would go from lowest in the pecking order to the top of the fish pile. He would gain the favor of his fellow land-striders and probably even have his uncontested choice of mates. His means to securing everything he ever wanted in life lay helpless at his feet, waiting for death.

No, not waiting. _Begging_ for death.

Fishbone was ready to perform the deed. His shiny claw was sharp and gleamed with efficient malice. He lowered his stance to gain the proper leverage. He had made his supplications and given his praise to various gods - all-powerful, invisible beings to which land-striders ascribe every good, bad, or indifferent event.

Content that his release was coming, the "fastest dragon in the queen's nest" closed his eyes and pressed his head to the ground, offering better access to his neck. Maybe those twig-like arms would have the strength to sever hide and muscle and tendons. Maybe his shiny claw would cut deep enough into the short but thick neck to actually kill. Maybe the pain would quickly pass.

Fishbone paused. He struggled against himself as a war raged on between his ears. Guilt flooded in from nowhere to wash away his resolve. In the end, he cut the vines to free the dragon.

It was a shock. Why did that little critter release the dragon? Does he not know that land-striders _always_ go for the kill? What is he, stupid?

Denied the death he so craved, grief flashed into a blinding rage and the black dragon instantly leaped up and pounced on the land-strider. The little critter shrunk inward, but did not whimper or bleat or cry out. He just stared back with… awe.

Yes, awe. And pity. It was imprinted so clearly on his passive emotional hum. Knowing that he was about to lose his head to fangs and fire did not inspire the usual fear, terror, anger, or regret.

There was still no clue why he cut the dragon loose. One may consider it a merciful act, but only one who cannot possibly imagine what it is like to remember a lifetime of humiliation in the queen's mind snare. Maybe Fishbone thought that releasing the dragon was a kind act and that would make it worth the risk to himself.

Personally, I think he just can't think.

This must have happened a couple days ago and it was this very land-strider Greedy was chasing around only earlier today, so what happened next is no surprise. The black dragon glared furiously at the land-strider, contemplating how to end his life.

He didn't, though. There was some impulse to spare him. Perhaps it simply didn't feel right to kill someone who could not fight back. He felt that striking down this land-strider would be a dishonorable response to being set free and, by extension, having a great deal of trust and faith placed on him. Dragons are not without a sense of morals, after all.

So, he simply roared his anger at Fishbone and leaped up into the air, where he realized that flying with a missing tailfin was impossible. Falling into a cove with tall, unbroken, smooth walls certainly was not helpful.

I blink back into my cave as the flow of impressions halts. Huh. Well, that was some interesting drama.

I casually shift over to the pool of water on my left and start lapping at it. The rain had stopped as the sun rose this morning, so the water is no longer trickling through here. Fortunately, there's enough to hold me over for several days. The land-striders better let me out of here and give me a new cave soon, though, or it'll start to become rank, just like with my former cave.

Being the eldest, Nose acts as the speaker for all of us and fills in the black dragon on what we have been up to since the raid that claimed myself, the black dragon, and Greedy. It's all a dry regurgitation of the events and the things we have learned about these land-striders, but there are some new details.

For example, there's this one land-strider I hadn't noticed until just now, as I review my memories of the images they showed me. She watches all our training events. She must be very old, with wrinkled skin and grey fur and uses a stick as a third leg to hobble about. Despite her frail form, she is some sort of respected elder who chooses which one of these land-striders we're training will be given the honor of fighting the most dangerous dragon - me, of course - at the conclusion of this whole series of training events.

According to our training plan, It will be up to me to choose whether I allow said "lucky" land-strider to actually kill me or I just end up killing him. If the land-strider is strong and competent - good dragon-slaying material - then I would elevate him above the others by choosing to die to him. If I elevate the right land-strider, then he will make the others more effective at killing the dragons that feed the queen. If I deem him unworthy, I simply end his life and they can try to find someone else who's better.

One might say the other dragons train them up and I judge their worth.

It only makes sense that the strongest dragon should choose the strongest land-strider.

Still, allowing myself to die would be a great loss to dragonkind. It could make a big difference, though. If it ends with the queen starving to death, then that is something I can live and even die for. If I throw my life away for a land-strider who is not good enough, then I die in vain. That's almost as bad as my whole past of living in vain.

This is how the Beast was established as the current ruler of these land-striders on this island. His predecessor, though, was a bumbling idiot who believed brute strength alone was all that mattered. I wouldn't be surprised if beating one's head against a rock until it split would impress him to no end. Sure, he did manage to kill a Nightmarish Monster like me in this very training arena, but that dragon just _happened_ to be sickly and starving. Well, she wasn't _entirely_ starving, but the only food she had for the days leading up to the fight was rotten, fermented fruit that left her tipsy and as high as the stars when released on the land-strider.

It was a dark period on this island. A lot of them ended up in the queen's belly. Fortunately, everything really turned around when the Beast took charge and straightened things up by organizing everyone to fight us more effectively. He proved himself to earn his status by using clever strategies to kill a Nightmarish Monster who was actually able to put up a fight. He knew that victory against a dragon relied on more than strength and shiny claws.

When I was taken down, it was sheer numbers that overwhelmed me, not the strength of any one of them. While I did manage to take out a few, that doesn't happen often. They were caught off-guard that I had wandered so far from the heat of the battle to find the best tribute. Once they collected themselves, I can now see that they simply kept me distracted and forced me to constantly change targets while they tired me out and wrapped those vines around my legs and maw.

As Nose talks about little Fishbone, the black dragon suddenly projects a cacophony of distress. In answer to our absolute and complete befuddlement to such a reaction, I see what happened soon after today's training event, when Fishbone went to see the black dragon. He knew he was approaching an injured, depressed, angry dragon that could crush his bones, tear him to shreds, and burn him to embers. Yet, he just strode right in as if he had nothing to fear.

With a fish.

He somehow ended up befriending the dragon. He made himself completely vulnerable and actually gained the dragon's trust.

Now, the black dragon is emotionally attached to the little runt. He isn't going so far as to, say, threaten to dedicate his whole life to claiming vengeance if we kill Fishbone or anything silly like that, but he's making it very clear that he wants us to let him live.

There are some good points raised. The black dragon is the closest any known dragon has ever come to being free from the queen's mind snare _and_ being outside the iron web. He promises to train Fishbone to be useful towards our goals as he, too, can think of no greater desire to live than to strike back at the queen.

However, we would have to allow the little Fishbone to continue getting in everyone's way and hindering our own training efforts. Land-striders become less effective, as a result of tripping over him, fewer dragons are freed from the queen's mind-snare, and she grows more powerful.

Allowing Fishbone to survive training is a new idea. New could be good. New could be an improvement from the same tactics we've been using for generations with little progress observed. Then again, new is risky. New could be bad. We could end up with another generation of pathetic dragon slayers, like before the Beast. All it could take is one bad land-strider that we decide not to cull while we have the chance.

As unlikely as it is, if Fishbone ends up facing off against me in the final training session, then it will be up to me to judge his worth. Until then, it's completely out of my claws and up to the other dragons. Some of them are a bit too soft and lenient for my liking.

In the end, it just feels like we're doing a favor for the black dragon, which would also be nothing more than dragging down the strong to enable the weak.

How splendid! I suppose life would be boring if it lacked drama, right?


	4. Caves and Dragons

**A/N:**

For the Easter eggs last chapter, there's a Youtube video called "Everything Wrong With How to Train Your Dragon". It's one of many on a channel that nitpicks inconsistencies and plot holes and I find them to be pretty funny. It actually played a part in inspiring some aspects of this story. I included a few references to the various sins the video pointed out.

During the first Gronckle training, there was a line that made me crack up. "Gronckle will now waste inordinate amounts of time hocking a fire loogie so Hiccup can be saved at the last second." They also pointed out that the dragon conveniently misses every shot, which partly inspired this whole "dragons are secretly in league with the Vikings" shindig.

During the Nadder training, Gobber mentioned that every dragon has a blind spot and the sins video called 'em out on how that would be a huge evolutionary flaw, so I had Spite dwell a little on that.

Yeah, I know, not the most impressive. After the whole "So long and thanks for all the fish" line in chapter 2, I should quit while I'm ahead. However, I'm even more stubborn than an irate dragon, so have fun with this next Easter egg. I anticipate some face-palming at the title alone.

 **Caves and Dragons**

KABOOM!

 _{Warn me next time you light our gas on fire. I didn't know to close my eyes.}_

 _{It wasn't me this time.}_

 _{Why should I believe you?}_

 _{Because you can literally feel everything I can feel. You would know if I shot out some sparks. Maybe you should think about that before accusing me.}_

 _{Maybe I should bite you.}_

 _{You already did.}_

 _{I'll do it again!}_

 _{But you would feel the pain, too!}_

Oops, that may have been me. Spit had been spewing out a bunch of explosive gas, knowing the cave walls were about to open. When I saw some of the green gas seeping into my small cave, I couldn't resist lighting it up. It was a long shot that the fire would spread through the wisps that drifted over, all the way to Spit and Sputter's cave, but I must say the results are quite pleasing. The walls of their cave were just loosened, so the explosion violently flung them wide open. It sure made for a dramatic entrance. I would know, being the master of such things.

 _I was attacking the darkness. Yes, that was it._

Consider it a well-deserved harassment of a dragon that naturally confuses everyone with their insanity. Nose and Rock had warned me about watching a training session through the many eyes of Spit and Sputter. Like any two-headed dragon, it's impossible to tell whether there are really two separate minds in there or one shattered personality.

In fact, there are a lot of mysteries about this sort of dragon besides just how insane it really is. For example, is it a he or a she? It has the organs of both sexes, so any two-headed dragon can mate with any other. One head will always insist the dragon is a she while the other will say the opposite. Likewise, one head will always coddle their hatchlings while the other will pretend to ignore them. As if that isn't strange enough, the heads may spontaneously switch roles, but always maintain that duplicitousness.

Such a dragon allows for some amusing scenarios during mating season, though. Not too long ago, at the very tail end of mating season, I saw two desperate Adders fighting over a two-headed dragon. They had both failed to find a mate, but the funny thing was that one adder was a male and the other was a female. It wasn't until _after_ they turned each other into porcupines that they realized this and ended up finally mating. I bet their hatchlings turned out to be very… special.

I can feel myself sway back and forth as I watch Spit and Sputter creep forward and out of their dark cave, heads snaking back and forth, enveloped in a cloud of their own gas that Spit is still spewing out. Watching through their eyes is, by far, the single thing that throws me off-balance the most. I think there are two different projected thought streams coming out of them - it, them, I simply don't know - but they're so similar I can't tell if it's only my imagination. Usually, I can focus on any one dragon's projected thoughts and ignore all others, but not so with the two-headed ones.

Today's training is all about teamwork. The land-striders are learning how to deal with dragon fire. Mainly, they're learning that fire and water don't mix as well as, say, fire and wood, or fire and flesh. A wet dragon head can't light its fire. A two-headed dragon is extra tricky - one head _breathes_ gas, the other head _lights_ it. Our job is to teach them which is which.

And make sure they _never_ forget.

This is an important skill as two-headed dragons can be quite the threat. During a dragon raid, one could simply fly down over a group of the critters, laying down a fog of explosive gas, then light it up, stunning a whole group so that other dragons can simply pounce and take them back to the queen. As a way of dealing with this, the land-striders have devised these hollowed-out stumps that hold water, which they use to douse a dragon's head so it cannot light the gas on fire. It's a decent way to defend themselves… except when some other dragon spits some fire to light up the gas, as I just demonstrated from the next cave over.

I sink deeper into a meditative trance and focus on all the nuances of their projected thought stream. Spit and Sputter have trained many in the past and have become pretty good at teaching them about staying focused on a task… as unlikely as it sounds for such a dragon.

As we creep forward towards the edge of the fog, the land-striders come into a blurry focus. They stand out with their browns, greys, and blues, but our green scales make us almost invisible within the shroud.

One of them, a male, thinks he sees us and throws water at a female wandering his way, mistaking the horns on her head for a dragon's. Apparently, it's a common and entertaining misunderstanding. A long time ago, our predecessors had trained land-striders to wear horns as such a sight can cause a dragon to balk in confusion for a critical moment, giving an attack of opportunity. Here, though, it causes the male to imagine he was seeing a dragon and lose his water, making himself more vulnerable.

The fact that this angered the female enough to hit him only made Spit and Sputter hiss with satisfaction.

 _{Another one bites the dust. Time to punish them.}_

 _{Alright, I'll grab him.}_

 _{You grabbed the last one. It's_ my _turn!}_

 _{Why do you turn everything into a contest?}_

 _{Because I have greater initiative.}_

 _{But we're on the same side!}_

 _{I think that's exactly what that female land-strider just said. Punishment time!}_

We take a step forward and Spit stretches its neck forward to grab the male with its teeth to drag him back into the green fog. We spin around and use our tail to knock down another, causing widespread panic among all of them.

Our two heads take turns grabbing him with our teeth and dragging him around before finally releasing him to run away, howling in pain. Any damage was only superficial, though. He'll be fine, but he won't forget his lesson.

It's time to offer a fighting chance, so we take a step forward. Spit extends its head out of the fog and stares down the chubby land-strider that almost became a pin cushion yesterday. He panics and quickly throws his water at the head… and fails the test. Wrong head. Spit can still spew out copious amounts of explosive gas when wet, which we demonstrate right into the land-strider's face.

The chubby one runs away in fear and we bear down on the only one who still has water. He looks up at us in a way that reminds me of a beached fish.

 _Oh, look who it is._

 _{Hi, Fishbone.}_

I'm going to call it. Things are about to get _very_ awkward. Earlier today, the black dragon - excuse me, _Toothless_ , as the land-strider started calling him - was telling us about his activities with his little pet. Well, I suppose _Toothless_ is the pet, really, as he is completely dependant on this critter for food.

Not only food, but flight, too. Fishbone had approached Toothless with a feast of fish, but while the dragon was gorging like, well, a starved dragon, he felt some strange sensation on his tail.

Thinking that Fishbone magically healed his torn-off tail fin, Toothless spread his wings and took off into the air. After almost smashing his face into a rock wall, he regained control and flew out of the cove.

Soaring high up in the sky for the first time in several days felt fantastic, but something was off. He ended up angling back towards the cove against his will, but figured he was simply relearning how to use his newly healed tail fin. Maybe regaining a limb that one had lost several days ago can be disorienting.

As he flew over the lake, inside the cove, he looked back to see Fishbone clinging to his tail for dear life. The dragon shook the little thing off to splash harmlessly in the pond, but promptly lost control and ended up splashing down.

Fishbone was ecstatic about how things went. Toothless voiced his thoughts by leaping and diving on top of Fishbone, plunging him below the surface, then dragging him out and across the ground before finally curling his tail around to inspect the new fin. He then proceeded to purr and lick his land-strider and then sit on him, completely unable to decide if he loved or hated the thing.

It was a testament to the creation of thoughts and artifacts by land-striders, really. Fishbone recreated the missing fin from iron and hide. Using that, Toothless could fly again, but it wasn't a perfect system. The dragon could not control the fin. Only Fishbone could. See? The _dragon_ is the pet to the _land-strider_.

 _Oh, you want to fly, Toothless? Well, if you do a favor for me, I'll climb onto your tail and off we go. Also, I'll control_ where _we fly, thank you very much. Just flap your wings. Harder!_

 _Mush, dragon pony! Mush!_

Granted, even _that_ would be a precarious solution for either of them at best. Toothless almost smacked right into a rock wall and Fishbone could have fallen to his death if his grip slipped. To be reliant on such a pet would not be any better than his current predicament.

 _{Don't hurt Fishbone. I need him!}_

Well, speak of the devil. It seems Toothless is listening in on the impressions Spit and Sputter are throwing out from wherever he is. The sensor lobes on his head allow him to do so from far away, but he needs to be focusing to align them properly. As I understand, it takes a bit of concentration and effort.

Toothless could be a useful ally in our war against the demonic queen, but he's completely dependant on the absolute worst dragon-slayer in all of history. Fishbone is weak, clumsy, and has no survival skills. His only good trait is his ability to run away, but he rarely does that because he doesn't know to fear us dragons. He's always running into someone else and both of them would die if we were not choosing to spare them for these training sessions.

And now, here Fishbone stands before us, scared and timid, shakily clutching the wooden implement they use to hold water. We don't want to injure the frail thing so much that he cannot help our new ally fly again, but we can't just let him go for free, either. We dragons must remain aloof and always present an appearance of danger and threat. If we don't, we'll have even _more_ Fishbones running into each other, complacent and careless during a dragon raid.

We decide to go easy on him and make the solution to this training exercise stupidly obvious.

With a flap of our wings, we part the green fog to clear up the air a bit. Both heads snake forward. Now that the smog has dissipated, Sputter shoots out some sparks to show which head is the one to soak with water. The two heads end up patiently staring down at Fishbone, waiting for him to do his thing. Even though they know he can't hear them, they encourage him to get this over with.

 _{C'mon, Fishbone, splash me!}_

 _{Yeah, splash Sputter. Just do it!}_

 _{Make me wet and end this awkward staring contest.}_

See? Awkward. I called it!

 _{Splash him already or I'll have to eat you.}_

 _{Wait, we're not_ really _going to eat him, are we?}_

 _{Spit, if you harm my land-strider, I will eventually get out of here and bite you!}_

 _{Oh, calm down, Toothless. I was only going to eat an arm. Maybe the lower part of his leg.}_

 _{Wait, Sputter, I think he's preparing to splash us.}_

 _{You mean he's preparing to splash_ ME _.}_

 _{Same dragon.}_

 _{I refuse to identify with this other head.}_

 _{Whatever. Hold still. Here it comes!}_

With a great deal of concentration, Fishbone summons all of his immense strength to hurl the water he's holding at us. With a mighty heave, the water arcs upward… a tiny bit before falling back down to the ground. Not a single drop landed on our head.

What makes this even worse is Fishbone's reaction. He's not looking for more water or running away, but standing there with the wooden implement held above his head, sighing in disappointment. I get the sense that Fishbone has grown accustomed to failure.

Spit and Sputter scramble to figure out how to handle this properly.

 _{Well, that was very awkward.}_

Called it!

 _{How does he survive in this world with no strength at all?}_

 _{Maybe he's very agile and charismatic?}_

 _{What do we do now?}_

 _{Eat him!}_

 _{Eeew! Nose, I am offended on behalf of both of us. We do have standards, you know.}_

 _{Don't eat him!}_

 _{Alright, Toothless, calm down. Maybe I could lay my head on the ground to make it easier for him? Oh! Spit, just grab that wooden thing out of Fishbone's hands._ You _can splash me on_ his _behalf.}_

 _{But it's empty. He has no more water. We can't just let him go without some sort of punishment.}_

 _{So, what do we do?}_

 _{Don't hurt him!}_

 _{Toothless, we get it. Nobody invited you!}_

 _{So what do we do?}_

 _{I don't know. Maybe scare him?}_

Sputter narrows his eyes, draws in a deep breath, and lets out a dangerous hiss. We rear up and flare our wings, giving a territorial display. It has the desired effect of scaring Fishbone, but instead of running away like a good land-strider, he stumbles backward and falls to the ground to curl in on himself and patiently await his death.

How has this creature avoided falling off a cliff or getting stepped on by larger land-striders? Seriously!

 _Gah! Eel! He has an eel! Get it away! Burn it to ash!_

 _Why does he have an eel?! What's_ wrong _with him?! What's he doing with it?! Just destroy it! Burn it! Burn the eel! Burn Fishbone! Burn_ everything _!_

It's right there, draped over his shoulder, but partially concealed by his hairy, outer hide. Disgusting things, eels are. Horrible, venomous creatures that the world would be better without. Even when dead, those _things_ are so… _vile_!

… _Oh, right, I'm still in my cave._

Spit and Sputter are completely unphased by the eel, though, being one of the few disgusting dragons that actually eat such filth. Fishbone is holding onto it as if it is some source of safety. Maybe the eel is a peace offering? Maybe he's hoping to bribe his way out of this training session?

 _{Toothless, feel free to suggest anything. What is your land-strider trying to do?}_

 _{I don't know. He once tried to feed me an eel. I gagged and almost vomited all over him. He got rid of it when I roared at him.}_

 _{That doesn't help us. What do we do?}_

 _{He thinks you are afraid of eels, just like the black dragon. Play along and pretend you are terrified. Allow him to chase you back into your cave.}_

Wait, who was that?! I can tell that isn't myself, Toothless, Rock, Nose, Greedy, or Spit and Sputter. That projection had to come from _someone_ , but aside from us dragons, there are only land-striders nearby. Sure, they could project thoughts, but theirs are barely intelligible, so who said that?

Spit and Sputter appear to be just as confused in their own insane way.

 _{Who said that?}_

 _{Mystery dragon, identify yourself.}_

 _{I don't think that was a dragon.}_

 _{Mystery dragon that is not a dragon, identify yourself or we will eat you.}_

 _{But only if you don't taste too bad.}_

 _{Do we comply?}_

 _{I guess so. It would be one way to end this training session. Feels wrong to allow a land-strider to chase us with a delicious eel.}_

 _{What sort of behavior would that encourage with the others?}_

 _{Throw eels at dragons for the next raid?}_

 _{Could work.}_

 _{For all the other species.}_

 _{I want to eat it!}_

 _{So do I, but let's do what the mystery dragon that's not a dragon said. Just back up. Oh no, the eel. The scary, scary eel. I fear the eel. Don't hurt me, eel. Please, Fishbone, don't let that delicious, luscious eel touch us.}_

 _{But I want the eel!}_

 _{Me too. Just play along.}_

We slowly back up, necks arched, pretending to be afraid of the mighty Fishbone and his horrendous eely ally. As we enter our cave, the stone walls start to close us in. With a triumphant look on his face, Fishbone tosses the eel into the cave.

Spit snatches it out of the air and Sputter grabs the other end. They bite it in half and gulp the thing down like the disgusting dragons they are. What kind of dragon would actually be willing to even _touch_ such a filthy thing?

Really!

The sudden transition on Fishbone's face from triumph to confusion and shock is something I shall dwell on quite often to pass the time.

I think Spit and Sputter may have broken Fishbone even more than I did that one rainy night, though. I could tell the little critter is now realizing that he just chased a dragon back into its cave on the _false_ pretense that it was afraid of the eel like any other dragon. Right now, I can tell he's deep in thought over this new epiphany.

This will only make things even more awkward. Now our pet of a potentially useful ally dragon not only is terrible at slaying us and always gets in the way of those better than him, but he may have figured out that we're just playing around with him. What if he capitalizes on this? What if he tells _everyone_ about what he just learned? What sort of trouble could it cause for us?

I don't know, but one thing is for certain. If Fishbone ends up facing off against me, I'm definitely going to do what these soft-hearted dragons can't.

########

* * *

########

 _{Dragons, can you hear me? I want to thank you for sparing my land-strider.}_

Ah, that would be Toothless. I have a bone to pick with him. _{Toothless, this is Spite. You may have fooled the other dragons, but I am not so easily deceived.}_

 _{I don't understand what you mean.}_

 _{You could have at least come up with a better alibi for sparing Fishbone than the eel. Do you realize how much trouble you have caused for us in our fight against the demonic queen?}_

 _{You're not making any sense, Spite. I saw the eel and I saw Spit and Sputter allow Fishbone to chase them back into the cave with it. That was actually very clever. Whoever came up with that idea, I thank you!}_

I can sense the other dragons are alert and listening, but choosing to hold their silence. So, I think I'll continue interrogating him.

 _{You were the source of that mystery voice, weren't you, Toothless? We know you have certain unique abilities in projecting thoughts. You somehow tricked us into thinking some wise, old dragon was giving us advice on how to handle that situation. You were that mystery voice.}_

Yes, that must be it. While dragons aren't as wild and imaginative as land-striders, we are very logical creatures. It is the only explanation.

I huff and lap up some water as a loud, clanging, groaning sound signals my cave wall loosening to allow me out. I push it forward to step out into the moonlit night and start running and flying around under the iron web. Crawling upside down on the web is actually pretty fun.

Toothless always has been a mysterious sort of dragon. To think he would stoop so low, though…

 _{I really don't understand, Spite. What is this mystery voice? I did not hear any voices aside from you, Spit and Sputter, Nose, Rock, and Greedy. Would you share your memory of this mystery voice with me?}_

 _Really? Really?! Fine. I may as well play along._

I share every detail about that mystery voice and all the details surrounding that event. I hadn't noticed it at the time, but on further inspection, that projected thought stream had a feminine sort of quality to it. Nothing happens for a while, but when Toothless projects again, I get the feeling he's actually intrigued.

 _{That is strange. I have not heard that voice ever since I was shot down. Perhaps I couldn't hear it today because of how far away I am. I can tell it was so quiet you were barely able to pick it up. It's somewhat chaotic, like a land-strider's projections, but still much more focused.}_

My eyes bulge out at that and I accidentally let go of the iron web, falling down to land flat on my back on the stone ground with a heavy thud.

 _{Wait a moment, Toothless. Back up. You have heard this voice before, when you were trapped in the demonic queen's mind snare?}_

Venom coats the black dragon's reply like a thousand eels. _{Filthy beast! May that demon die in fire a thousand times over!}_

I sigh. Been there. _{Yes, yes, we know. This voice, though. Tell me about it.}_

Toothless showers me with a myriad of memories. During the raids, he would act as a relay for the queen and coordinate our raiding efforts. Only he was receptive enough to hear it from any appreciable distance. On this island alone, he would hear this voice telling him to make sure we never attack certain wooden caves and he always felt compelled to oblige. It was as if this voice had a way of… leaning on his mind. It couldn't control him the way the queen could, but he naturally wanted to believe this voice and accept its wisdom.

In hindsight, this voice was responsible for the deaths of many dragons. It would instruct Toothless to have dragons fly here or there, where they would be pummeled by large, airborne rocks or impaled by large quills and shiny claws. These dead dragons are no longer feeding the demonic queen and are free from her mind snare thanks to this voice. It's actually an ally!

Alright, I suppose I can fly with that for now. _{Fine. Whatever. I'll believe you when you say that wasn't your voice. So, we have some mysterious ally land-strider that can talk to dragons. That's hardly justification for allowing Fishbone to go on like this, though.}_

 _{Actually, Spite, I was hoping I could convince you to help him even more. Not only you. Nose, Rock, Greedy, Spit, Sputter, I know you are listening to us, even though you are holding your silence. I ask for your help, please.}_

Greedy chimes in. _{The black dragon is humbly asking for something instead of demanding it? Now I have seen it all!}_

The nature of Toothless' projected thoughts instantly turns venomous. _{Those who mistake me for a whimpering worm have a tendency to die! Consider yourself warned. However, you are right in part. I have lost more than just a tail fin when I fell and gained more than just a source of food and flight when I befriended Fishbone.}_

 _{It is a phase all dragons go through, Greedy.}_ I can practically see Nose rolling his eyes. _{His attitude is not worth shedding any scales. Even if you don't like him, anything is better than that lightning dragon he replaced.}_

I add my own affirmation to the chorus of roars from all us caged dragons. Lightning dragons are the absolute worst. They are very cantankerous, sinister, and see other dragons only as target practice no matter how much the queen orders them to stop attacking us.

We had all breathed a sigh of relief when the land-striders from another island finally killed the lightning dragon. It wasn't long afterward that a recently-hatched black dragon appeared in the nest. Apparently, the queen is forced to choose one or the other as the two species can never exist together without killing each other.

Rock speaks up. _{Tell us of your plan, Toothless. We will hear you out.}_

 _Hold up, there._ _{You do not speak for me!}_

 _{Right you are, Spite. Then I speak for myself. Toothless, I will hear you and Spite can ignore you if he wants.}_

 _{For generations, we have been training land-striders to kill dragons to free them from the queen's mind snare and limit her food supply. Little progress has been seen. Fishbone represents a much more potent way to use them as allies. We need to elevate him in their eyes.}_

Nose speaks with doubt thick in his projections. _{That is too risky. Fishbone represents a hindrance to our goals. I have worked too hard and sacrificed too much to allow some desperate dragon to ruin everything just because he wants some fish!}_

 _{This is not about me, you unthinking rat!}_

I can feel great ire from Toothless. He absolutely hates having his pride poked. Glimpses of Fishbone waft in from him, memories of his previous encounters as the dragon seeks to draw some strength from how calm and controlled he apparently behaves around said dragon.

 _{You're right, Nose, that this is a risk, but do not insult me with implications that my hatred for the queen does not burn as hot as yours. If we disagree, it is not a different goal, but a different method. Sometimes you need to change things up to see progress.}_

With obvious skepticism, Nose projects what we're all thinking. _{You think you can improve on our methods? I doubt it, but explain.}_

 _{You are using land-striders as unwitting allies. All they know is that dragons should be killed and that's it. What if we get Fishbone to trust us? We know different gestures to communicate with them, but they don't recognize our attempts at communication because of their conditioning. Fishbone can understand me. He can't hear me, but I can communicate certain things to him. He can think with his lips to talk to other land-striders. We need to start recognizing them as intelligent creatures and not just an indirect way to strike back at the queen.}_

 _{Change could be bad. Why take a risk?}_

Rock decides it's her turn to jump in. _{While I can't fathom how Toothless is coming up with such an imagination to make these massive and blind leaps in logic, his point about further investigating what Fishbone can do has some validity. Haven't many other land-striders tried to knock Toothless to the ground in the past, including the Beast himself? Only Fishbone has succeeded where all others have failed. He must be special in some way that we don't fully understand. There is risk, yes, but Toothless is in a position to interact with a land-strider in a way we cannot to further examine this anomaly. It sounds like Fishbone may be able to teach new ways to kill the queen's dragons and we, in turn, can train the other land-striders, as we always have, but more effectively.}_

Silence. Lots of silence and nothing else. I lope around the training arena to help clear my thoughts. Finally, Toothless speaks up again.

 _{Rock has a good point. Just the other day, I learned so much about land-striders that I and none of you ever knew. When Fishbone made himself completely vulnerable and touched me, I felt a closer connection to him than I ever imagined. It was a shock and I was afraid at first, and I had to distance myself, but I can now see that land-striders are very intelligent creatures. The chaos we sense in their projected thoughts is only the byproduct of a complex thought process I can't even begin to relate to. Maybe their projected thoughts aren't as organized as ours, but that may be the basis of their imagination. If we work together with some of them instead of simply_ using _them as fodder, maybe they can help us find a better way to deal with the queen.}_

 _{What you're asking is to interrupt our land-strider training to help your FIshbone?}_ I can feel a thick layer of disbelief and doubt in Nose's voice.

 _{Yes, Nose, I am asking you to make him the obvious winner in each training event. As he gains prestige, other land-striders will listen to him. If you help to ensure he will be heard, I will train him to understand our situation and get him thinking about possible solutions. We have been presented with a very unique situation and this could be the turning point in a war that has been in stalemate for many generations.}_

 _{Toothless, our current system works and we know it. You are asking us to accept a great risk to our system that we know works.}_

 _{Nose, I do not contest the fact that there is a risk, but you are wrong about one thing. Make no mistake about this war against the demonic queen. We are not winning, only delaying our eventual failure to stop her. She is becoming more powerful and her range of influence is expanding. If there is no change, we will ultimately fail.}_

Silence again. I don't like it. Everything feels… _wrong_. Is it not better to stick with something that works well enough than to risk great loss for potential gain? Every time a land-strider kills a dragon, that's one less creature providing food for the queen.

Also, how is Toothless suddenly making such vast leaps in logic? Dragons don't do that. Silly things like creating new thoughts is reserved solely for the land-striders. Even the structure and timbre of his projected thoughts feels different. It's like he is… absorbing Fishbone's… mental tendencies or… _something_.

Still, all the other dragons eventually give their consent to elevate Fishbone above the others. They would be very aggressive and unforgiving with the other land-striders, then give Fishbone an easy win. Even Nose grudgingly promises he'll give Fishbone a chance, but only because we will have plenty of opportunities to cull him later on if helping him turns out to be a mistake.

As for me, I don't know. I feel physically worn out from tearing around under the iron web and mentally beat down from thinking about this situation too much. I saunter into my new cave, where a pile of fish awaits. As I've learned to expect, my transition from one cave to the next yields a cleaner habitation for a few more days. As I've also learned to expect, the walls shut behind me as soon as I enter.

Toothless, though, would not relent.

 _{What about you, Spite? Eventually, Fishbone would have to face off against you. He now understands that we dragons are intelligent and sentient creatures, not the mindless killers all other land-striders believe us to be. I have seen many proofs of his imagination and cleverness and I can train him to perform well in your exercises. All I'm asking you to do is to cooperate with him and trust that he will keep the interests of us dragons in mind.}_

I finish up the pile of fish, lap up some water from the pool, warm up the smooth stone with my fire, and curl up.

 _{Spite?}_

I let out a long exhale as I tuck my head under my wing. All this isn't sitting well with me. Fortunately, unlike the queen, before I was taken down, I can always shut them out.

 _{I am undecided. Good night!}_


	5. You Can't Take the Sky from Me

**A/N:  
** Easter egg reveal time. The title of the last chapter is an homage to an old-timey pen'n'paper game called Dungeons and Dragons. I figured dragons don't know what dungeons are, so I used caves instead.

After lighting the green explosive gas on fire, Spite justified his actions in his own mind by saying he was attacking the darkness. This was taken from a humorous video explaining to the layman what D&D is all about (Google "8 bit dnd"). An overexcited 1st-time player was a wizard and _really_ wanted to cast a spell, even though there was nothing to attack. When asked why he wanted to cast Magic Missile, he exclaimed, "I'm attacking the darkness!"

Spit and Sputter were arguing about who had greater initiative, which is a way of figuring out who gets to act first since D&D is turn-based. The whole D&D idea started when I used the phrase "attack of opportunity" and didn't realize until later that it was specifically a D&D term for when you turn your back on an enemy.

Lastly, when Fishbone tried to splash the Zippleback with his bucket of water and failed miserably, the dragon couldn't help but comment on his lack of strength. Still, since he's at approximately the same level as his peers, he must have put all his stat points into other things like charisma, agility, and intelligence. Yes, Fishbone is a Rogue class. Or maybe Bard?

 **You Can't Take the Sky from Me**

Now that I am in possession of my own mind and have all the time in the world to do little more than stare at a stone wall, I have been doing a lot of thinking. The mysteries of life unravel before my focused mind as I dwell on the things that nobody has ever pondered before. This is all really a euphemism to say that, even though this existence is better than that of the demonic queen's mindless thrall, it's still insanely boring. However, I have come to the answer for one of those great questions in life.

Is there anything more entertaining than watching a haughty and prideful dragon allow a land-strider to sit on his back and ride around on him like some beast of burden?

Yes, in fact. Add on top that said dragon has very limited options for communicating with said rider and needs to allow said rider to take the lead and learn how to ride said dragon at his own pace.

Of course, I bet there was a lot more of this than what Toothless - named by his pet land-strider who was confounded by his retractable teeth - actually shared with us. Not that Toothless had much choice in showing us how things are going on his end. We're cooperating with him in helping out Fishbone, but only with the agreement that this will provide some benefit in our war against the demonic queen. For our continued support of his clumsy rider, it is only natural to require confirmation of progress on the other end.

After Fishlegs convinced Toothless to accept a saddle and his own rear his back, the two have made progress towards flying together in leaps and bounds… and glides. Each time they lose control and fall into the lake they're gliding over as training, Fishbone would always pick himself back up and return the next day with improvements to the tail fin.

It was during one of these early tests that they figured out how to "defeat" Rock, the next dragon to rise up against these young trainees. After one short-but-promising flight, something on the tail fin slipped out of alignment and they landed hard in a field of thick, tall grass. There are many types of grass in this world, but not much grows near the queen's nest. This stuff, though, made Toothless feel like he was actually flying when, in fact, he was rolling around, wriggling on his back with complete abandonment of any dignity or composure. It wasn't a sickening sort of feeling, but quite the opposite. Like everything in the world is just… _right_!

He continued like this until he was practically dragged out by his land-strider - excuse me, his _rider_. Ha! I still can't get over it. Toothless is a willing pet to tiny Fishbone!

 _Mush, dragon pony! Mush!_

I must admit, though, as Toothless shared his memories of that day, I came to one conclusion. As he rolled around in that field and I felt his brain melt while the sun warmed his scales and the wind playfully patted his wings… as he shared how amazing it feels when his little rider scratches him along the jaw, neck, and belly… as I continually do nothing except shuffle from cave to cave when I'm not staring at the cold, stone walls… there was one thought that always flitted about my mind.

I really, really, _really_ want to tear his neck apart.

No, I am not jealous. Not one bit.

Oh well. I'll admit that him sharing these experiences is helping to keep some sense of my sanity. I really wish the other land-striders knew about that grass, though, because I can say one thing for certain: If they put some of that in our caves whenever a dragon is captured, he would be too airy in the head to fall into a suicidal depression.

This stuff provided Fishbone with an interesting way to win the next training session. When the world stopped dancing around Toothless, he saw Fishbone just staring at a handful of that grass and the dragon could recognize that thoughtful expression. He let Rock know so she would be prepared and actually excited to be "taken down" by Fishbone.

When she was released on the land-striders, she simply buzzed about, enjoying a grand time of knocking them around. There was one moment when one of the identical twin land-striders leaped into the air to strike her. Rock lunged forward and bunted him flat against the wall and he crumpled to the ground in a daze. Several spectators who were watching from outside the iron web stiffened in shock until they realized he was battered, but not badly injured. One of them clapped his hands in joy.

With all the other trainees dispatched for the moment, Rock zipped right up to Fishbone, who pulled out some of that grass and rubbed it against her snout. That's where the flow of impressions ended as her mind dissolved into a mist, but I could tell that even that little bit was a sensation like no other.

In her next waking moment, she realized that, not only did no land-strider leap on the opportunity to kill her, but the entire arena was completely empty. A dragon has never been incapacitated in a non-violent manner before, so the land-striders simply opened up a new cave with a pile of fish inside for when she awoke. It was a bit scary for her to think about how long she was left so vulnerable.

By playing along with Fishbone, we're not just risking our effectiveness at fighting against the queen, but our very lives, too.

Greedy was up next to teach. Toothless had learned one amazing trick he could train into his rider. With those nimble fingers, Fishbone discovered one particular spot, along the base of the dragon's jawline, that he could scratch for a brief moment and make the dragon pass out. As Toothless recalled that moment, it was an overload of pleasure that his mind couldn't cope with and he woke up a while later feeling more relaxed than any of us had ever felt.

Fishbone took his new "dragon-slaying" skills to the arena to try on Greedy. We had a fairly strong suspicion of what to expect, so she tore around the arena to dispense with the others. There was no longer a wooden maze, so she was in her element and gave the inexperienced students a sound thrashing without too much difficulty.

The obnoxious male with the black hair didn't last long. He managed to land a solid hit, but his approach was far too direct for his own health. Greedy decided to teach him a lesson by leaving him bruised and battered on the ground with a couple claw punctures to tend to. They weren't deep, but he needed to learn some tact.

One of them, the male twin, lost his shiny claw that was attached to the end of a long stick when Greedy snatched it right out of his hands. She broke it in half before carelessly discarding the pieces on the ground to give a cawing laugh.

I never knew land-striders cry when their heart is torn to pieces. The things you learn watching other dragons train these critters.

After Greedy dispatched everyone, it was time to give Fishbone the win. She deflected a thrown shiny claw from the blue-eyed female, sending it all the way across the arena, and charged up to Fishbone. There was an awkward moment as he cringed and worked through his paralyzing fear reaction, but he finally set into scratching her along the jawline.

However, the female had regained her large, shiny claw and was charging in to strike. Greedy could do nothing but stand there, immobilized by such an overpowering sense of euphoria and relaxation. Fishbone hit that sweet spot and she awoke to an empty arena. Surprisingly, her head was still attached to her body despite that blue-eyed female.

Maybe Fishbone scratched her along the jawline to stop her?

Either way, if I ever get my own pet land-strider, he's going to do that to me _every single day_. From the sensations Greedy and Toothless shared, it's like mating, eating fish, basking in the warm sun, and sleeping all rolled into one.

Eventually, Fishbone caught on to what we've been doing. His confidence increased as he came to terms with the role we needed him to play. He even figured out that we've been in communication with Toothless in what I must admit to being a very clever way.

After defeating Spit and Sputter by twisting their necks together and single-handedly shoving them back into their cave - once the other land-striders had been dealt with, of course - he did something that seemed so inconspicuous at the time. Before the cave walls closed in, he reached into some sort of animal hide sack mounted on his hip and pulled out an offering. It was a couple of fish that smelled of a pleasantly dizzying smoky aroma and stuffed full of that wonderful grass.

Never before have Spit and Sputter ever drooled so much or come so close to fainting.

Later that day, Fishbone went to visit Toothless. The dragon immediately poked his nose at the hide sack on his rider's hip. Fishbone put on a big smirk and reached in to pull out… an eel! He was too busy rolling on the ground in laughter at the dragon's frantic retreat to care about the well-deserved pouncing and gnawing on his head with toothless gums in retribution. It was then that we realized he was actually testing a hunch that Toothless was in communication with us.

Clever critter.

Today, the students have trained enough that Stick-leg has decided they are finally ready to face the one, the only, the monstrously horrendous, the terror that is terrible… the little mink dragon! As Nose pushes out of his cave, we already know how this is about to go.

I watch through his eyes as we take a few steps out and stare up at the land-striders with our head tilted to the side while idly licking an eye with our long tongue. It produces the desired effect of making everyone drop their guard, thinking we are cute and adorable rather than deadly and ferocious. Mink dragons may be little, but they are not impotent. Nose especially should never be underestimated with how long he's been training land-striders.

While one land-strider, the male twin, comments on our insubstantial size, we launch ourself at his face, demonstrating just how Nose earned his name. Sharp teeth clamp down as we scrabble at his torso. We jump from land-strider to land-strider, seeking out exposed bits of flesh to claw at, giving an occasional quick bite before moving on.

Speed is critical towards survival and we have to be especially careful of their greatest self-defense mechanism against little mink dragons. The wooden, round carapace each student is carrying is very effective at blocking us if used properly. If they anticipate how we would react to slamming into a slab of wood instead of our desired target, they could fling us to the ground or into a wall. In the hand of a skilled and experienced land-strider, it can even be deadly.

Fortunately, these students are neither skilled _nor_ experienced.

As Nose goes about training the land-striders, he gleefully talks about what he's teaching them, even though he knows only us dragons can hear. He's been doing this sort of thing for so long it's all just a game, now.

 _{Lesson one: dragons have sharp teeth and claws - even the small ones.}_

We jump back to the male twin and he instantly covers his face. Good. Lesson learned. We jump off, timing it perfectly so his female counterpart charging in sends them both to the ground.

 _{Lesson two: when you're fighting dragons, fight dragons, not each other.}_

While those two tumble around, fighting over who hit who, we stare up at the other four. Fishbone casually slides to the side, knowing this is not his fight… yet. The pudgy one stumbles back, but that's no surprise. He's afraid of anything that moves. We stare at him and he turns tail to run away.

This simply cannot be allowed to go on, so we launch at him.

 _{Lesson three: only prey runs from a dragon. You fight and kill, fight and die, or run and die… unless you're secretly in league with us to enable Toothless to help us against the queen.}_

We need him to learn his lesson, but it's no good if we cripple the poor thing. Pain is an excellent teacher and Nose really wants to teach this one to stand his ground, so we launch at the back of his legs, digging our claws in to climb up higher.

 _{Mercy is the mark of a great dragon.}_

A puff of fire to the hairy hide puts him in even more of a panic as acrid smoke rises from his back.

 _{Guess I'm just a_ good _dragon.}_

The land-strider lunges to the ground, rolling onto his back to extinguish the flames. He's almost had enough for now, so we coil our haunches, place our talons on a particular spot between his legs, and launch off at the other land-striders. I never knew a land-strider's shriek could be so high-pitched.

 _{Well, I'm alright.}_

With the pudgy one dispatched to tend to himself, only two are left attacking us - one obnoxious male and one focused and determined female. Only evil satisfaction rides on Nose's projections.

In a blur of motion, we crawl all over them, delivering scratches here and there. Our goal is not to kill or maim, but simply make it clear to them that they should not discount just how deadly a mink dragon can be. The female actually manages to use her wooden carapace to slam us against the stone wall. The impact stuns us for a critical moment, but we manage to skitter away before she can follow up. In all our scrabbling around, the male makes an attempt to grab us off of the female, but ends up, well, missing.

This is actually all part of Nose's plan. Over time, he has learned that female land-striders have these lumps on their torso that are probably mammaries since they don't lay eggs. Whenever a male stares at or touches these, even if by accident, it almost always angers the female.

When said female is in her prime, aggressive, fierce, and well aware of how attractive she is, the results are pretty much guaranteed. The male hardly had time to recognize his blunder before she drove her forehead hard into his face. We didn't hear any bones breaking, but that _had_ to hurt.

As one who has taken many blows to the face, I can attest.

 _{Hey, you're not allowed to go for the nose. I have a reputation to live up to! Also, lesson four: stay focused on the dragon.}_

Nose chirps with delight from where we land, suspended upside down from the iron web above.

Fishbone crouches down to inspect the damage to the obnoxious male only to be kicked over by the irritated female, who then proceeds to cast about, frantically looking for us, but failing to look up.

 _{Lesson five: dragons can fly. The next time you forget this, a dragon will swoop down, pluck you up, and take you to the nest.}_

We pounce and scrabble all over her, subtly leading her away from Fishbone. In fact, she ends up tripping over the pudgy one and takes a painful tumble.

 _{Lesson six: never lose track of your surroundings. The next time you forget this will be your last.}_

Taking advantage of the opportunity, we bite the hand holding her broad shiny claw, sending it to the ground in a squeal of pain. We then flit across the arena as quick as lightning to land on Fishbone's arm. He _finally_ goes for what he was trained to do in the first place as he casually picks us off and flicks us to the ground - a maneuver that took Toothless _forever_ to train into his rider with only gestures, growling, and purring as means of communication.

Earlier today, Toothless had told us about how Fishbone inadvertently invented a new game to play. He saw a bright shimmer on the ground and thought it was a really interesting bug. Since he was in a playful mood after a successful test flight, he gleefully pounced on it. The insect escaped and he pounced again, but it slipped away. This continued for some time before he realized this "bug" was just light reflecting off some sort of shiny iron thing Fishbone was holding.

That led to the idea of how Fishbone could win this next training event, and after pouncing and drenching his rider in slobber as retribution for making him a fool, Toothless proceeded to train Fishbone to use this method today against Nose. Through various gestures, purring when Fishbone was on the right track and growling when Fishbone went off in the wrong direction, he eventually communicated that Nose would be the next dragon he would train against and they spent some time practicing how to win this next session.

Now, Fishbone is using the shiny metal center of his wooden carapace to produce a similar light bug. We gleefully chase it around, following wherever it flits off to. True to his training, Fishbone leads us back to our cave. Before going in, we stop, turn, and give him a big wink. We hardly take a moment to enjoy the look on his face as his eyes bug out and his jaw drops to the ground before we scuttle through the swinging portion of the cave wall to go back inside.

 _{And the final lesson: what works on one dragon won't always work on another. It's been fun, land-striders. We should do this again after you've recovered.}_

########

* * *

########

 _{Spite. Wake up! You should hear this too.}_

 _Huh? What? I wasn't sleeping, just… inspecting my eyelids. They still work. And if anyone even_ thinks _of saying that sleepiness is weakness of character, I will bite off their head._

Actually, projected thoughts alone wouldn't be enough to wake a dragon. It was all the roaring from the other caged dragons that pulled me out of my slumber - even through these cave walls. As I always say, if there's one thing a dragon is good at, it's killing. If there are two things we're good at, it's that and flying. However, making loud noises that would awaken the dead is definitely somewhere up there.

I give out a long yawn and blink my way back into my dark cave. They're definitely waiting for me for some confirmation that I'm alert and listening. I can feel it in all their passive hums.

Tension is in the air.

Well, then, let I guess I'll get to the bottom of this so I can go back to sleep. _{What do you all want? Make it quick. I need my sleep. Is that you, Toothless? Tell me what you have to say so I can prepare to fight Fishbone tomorrow.}_

 _{You will not harm him!}_

I chuff. It's so easy to rile up the black dragon with how closely he's become attached to that critter. _{I will hear him out and see what he does.}_

 _{You can count on my rider. His name is no longer Fishbone, though. I came up with a proper name. His new name is Firefly.}_

I suppose it's a fitting name. There's nothing wrong with Fishbone, but that land-strider does resemble those insects in more ways than just his slight size. He's unpredictable and can actually be a nimble target to try to hit. Besides, fireflies are very amusing insects. I've rarely seen them in the forests, but they are enchanting creatures that simply inspire joy and playfulness.

Sure, I suppose I can grant Fishbone that new name. From all the impressions I've received from Toothless and the other dragons, I can see his personality fitting those playful bugs.

 _{So you woke me up to update me on your rider's name? Gee, thanks. This changes_ everything _! Good night.}_

An annoyed hiss draws my attention to Greedy in the next cave over.

 _{Spite, this is important! Toothless flew to the demonic queen's nest!}_

 _He did WHAT!?_

 _{You did WHAT!? Toothless, are you_ insane _?! Have you completely lost your mind?! If you leave the safety of this island, the queen could control you again! You could become a mindless thrall and that would only help her! How stupid can you be!?}_

 _{Calm yourself, Spite. I think you have a problem with your brain being missing. I have already flown there and returned. I now rest safely in my cove and am still in complete control of myself. Now that you're all awake, I will show you what transpired.}_

A flood of impressions from Toothless tells it all to me. I see him flying into the fog surrounding the queen's nest, surrounded by hundreds if dragons hauling in their tribute from a raid. As usual, he had his rider on his back to enable flight. As was certainly _not_ usual, his back was also sporting a particularly fiery-tempered, blue-eyed female land-strider. And, ummm, _she_ was there… because...

By my egg, land-striders can be so silly!

She was snatched up because she was so full of bitter resentment over Firefly's effortless victory over her earlier today.

Well, it wasn't really effortless, especially for Rock, against whom they were training. Firefly was determined to avoid any confrontation with the dragon. It was like he _wanted_ to lose. In fact, Rock had to take matters into her own claws. While the female land-strider was collecting her wits and patting out the flames on her outer hide after barely dodging a volley of molten fireballs, Rock zipped up to Firefly and snapped at him. He naturally raised his arms in a defensive gesture and Rock shot up to the web before crashing to the stone floor, pretending Firefly hit her really hard.

She then proceeded to thrash around on her belly in front of Firefly, who held out a placating hand, but she made it look like he hit her again. She used her tail to slam the female into the stone wall before tumbling over to finally come to a rest at Fishbone's feet.

That mysterious voice, the dragon that's not a dragon that told Spit and Sputter to pretend to be afraid of the eel, complimented Rock on a very convincing performance and thanked her for taking care to avoid breaking any bones in the blue-eyed one. This was the sixth time it talked to us. Usually, it would always tell us that we would only condemn ourselves if we kill or seriously injure any of these students. As always, it did not respond to our questioning about who was speaking to us.

In the end, the female stalked out with only a minor limp and murder in her eyes as she glared at the victor. After all, this was not just any other training exercise. This was more like a test to see who would receive the honor of fighting against me tomorrow.

Hence, me sleeping as much as I can as I have no clue how to approach this sort of situation. The Beast was established as a leader by killing a nightmarish monster like myself. His predecessor was made the leader after killing a nightmarish monster, but he was such a bumbling fool the demonic queen grew fat on his incompetence.

Firefly, though… I just don't know. He's clever, I'll give him that, but he needs to learn to do more than just cringe when confronted by a dragon. If he becomes the leader on this island, he could be infinitely worse than Beast's predecessor.

Tomorrow, I'll be in a situation where my actions will decide the future of these land-striders. I mean, there's no more fitting dragon to hold such sway, but I'm a _hunter_ for roaring out loud! An unstoppable killer! I kill dangerous creatures. It's what I do!

Fighting Firefly is just _insulting_! And if I'm not biting off his head, what else can I do? Pretend he can tame me by touching my snout like he did with that whelp of the black dragon?

I'll figure it out and wing it when the time comes. No point in fretting over it right now.

Apparently, while I was sleeping, after his decisive victory over Rock, Firefly appeared in the cove, but the blue-eyed female followed and confronted him. Well, more like _assaulted_ him. She ended up angering Toothless and ran away, but Firefly mounted up and they gave chase. After plucking her up from the ground - she forgot Nose's lesson that dragons can fly - they took a flight and Firefly put his elevated prestige to work. He showed her that we dragons are not mindless beasts. She saw for herself that an alliance could be formed between dragons and land-striders.

One thing led to another, and when Toothless felt a subtle tug on his mind directing him towards the queen's nest after a raid, he decided to go in. It was reckless and foolish. He did not know whether or not he would be safe. He just had a hunch and went with it, dragging Firefly and the female land-strider along on his back.

They were almost eaten by the queen, but they managed to escape. Somehow, just having a rider was enough to scramble the queen's alluring pull on his mind. He could hear the queen, but contact with his rider blocked her out enough that she couldn't forcefully claim his mind as her own again.

Toothless ended up giving that female land-strider a name, too.

Zealot.

Initially, he thought she was simply very jealous and cruel towards Firefly, but she actually had noble intents. Anything she deems worthy of protection, she defends with her life. She confronted Firefly in the cove because she recognized him as a threat to our system for training land-striders and, well, I can't say I disagree with her. Even after applying some brute force to try to terrorize Firefly into admitting to what he was doing in cooperating with us, she still tried to protect him against the perceived threat of Toothless.

Now that she has seen everything - riding dragons, the nest, the demonic queen - she has allied herself with Firefly. It's still the same motive to protect what she deems to be good that drives her, but the method has changed. The difference between when she threw Firefly to the ground and when she promised to cooperate with him wasn't a change in mindset or objectives but a change in understanding.

She is a true zealot. Undeterred and uncompromising in protecting what matters to her, but Firefly simply guided her zeal towards different currents. Interesting.

Now we have _two_ Fireflies, two land-striders that know us caged dragons are abstaining from our usual habit of culling weak dragon slayers or causing any serious harm because of this awkward situation. Together, they could convince all the other land-striders to… do… _something_ , I guess. Hopefully, that something wouldn't end up getting us all killed for nothing. None of us are afraid to die, but nobody wants to die in vain.

I don't like it, so it's up to me to put Toothless in his place. _{Toothless, you are a fool! The queen saw you. She knows you have a rider and that he can protect you from her mind snare. What do you think she will do, now? What you did with Firefly was reckless! Do you really hate us that much after all we've done to help you or are you simply incapable of thought?}_

 _{It was necessary, Spite! I enabled Firefly. I gave him more information to work with. You cannot deny that they are intelligent creatures and my rider is the best among them all. The intricacies of his thought patterns are so complex we think they are random and chaotic, but that is not so. I simply gave Firefly more resources to work with and I trust he will figure out what we cannot. Now that he has Zealot's support, he cannot be ignored by the other land-striders. Even if they would not listen to him, they cannot ignore both of them!}_

Nose hisses in frustration. He has been cooperating in enabling Firefly in our training sessions, but Firefly would be a bloody stump by now if the little dragon had the slightest idea that Toothless would jeopardize us like _this_.

 _{Spite is right! You gave the queen reason to focus on this island more intensely. She has wiped out entire land-strider colonies in the past by focusing so many dragons on them for a period of time. It would cost her greatly, but if she wants to raze this entire island to bare rock, she can. And now she_ will _because of_ you _!}_

 _{Calm down you adorable little mink.}_ Leave it up to Rock to be the peacekeeper. _{You have to admit that our efforts have done little if anything against the queen. Don't get me wrong - it's great to have something to live for to keep us occupied, but be cautious that you don't embellish our importance. Greedy, as the eldest of the recent dragons to have been captured, what can you say of how the demonic queen fares? Has our training produced any noticeable impact?}_

Greedy trills in deep thought for a moment. _{If anything, the queen has grown more powerful. The number of dragons in her nest has increased quite noticeably in my lifespan and her range of influence has expanded. We have recently started to raid islands that were formerly too far away for her liking and brought back as much food as we could carry. I don't like risk, either, Nose, but I must side with Toothless. If we all die tomorrow, then it would only hasten the inevitable. Besides, getting roasted by a thousand dragons is a pretty exciting alternative to this boring life or training land-striders. But what if Firefly really_ can _make some progress? If we don't change how we deal with this, how can we expect any change in the results we see?}_

As we all discuss this, Nose continues to pour out a stream of images showing all the ways he wishes he had killed Firefly and… well, I thought _I_ could be quite gruesome and macabre, but… Nose…

I dive into my pool of water and roll around in it. It's not helping! The images are still there!

Finally, after the hundredth variation of how he would turn that land-strider inside out, one ragged strip of flesh at a time, we all roar at him to stop.

Toothless decides it's his turn to toss in his own thoughts. _{Nose, you are disgusting and if you ever touch_ MY _Firefly, I will eat you! Spite, Firefly has done amazing things and he will again. Just wait and see. He constantly defies what we accept to be a grim truth. He took away my flight, realized our true nature, and then gave it back. We assumed that killing dragons would be the only way to strike at the queen, but Firefly has demonstrated methods that could be infinitely more effective if he gets the other land-striders to accept his new ways. Just imagine what could be done if they start cooperating with every dragon they capture instead of simply using us to train their young ones. Imagine what a whole_ flock _of dragons with riders who are immune to the queen's mind snare can accomplish! One dragon with a rider may not take her down, but how about a hundred? Or a_ thousand _? Think of the possibilities!}_

Silence. I can feel that everyone has a thousand things to say, but we're at a loss of even where to start. First off, how is Toothless even coming up with inventions of the mind like this? It's as if the tendencies of his rider's mind are gradually imprinting on his own. That must be how he's able to make these vast, blind leaps of logic. It's simply… not a dragon thing to do.

Finally, Spit and Sputter break the silence. _{Where is your rider now?}_

We see, through Toothless' eyes, the smooth, rocky walls of the cove. What was once a pit of despair for a maimed dragon is now a sanctuary of comfort, all because of the insanity and brilliance of a single land-strider that shot a dragon down and made him fly again. The moon and stars cast an almost perfect reflection in the lake just off to the side. Toothless cranes his neck around and nuzzles his nose in under his wing to see the sleeping form of Firefly.

I've never seen a land-strider sleeping before. I've only seen them fighting and dying and training. This image of Firefly is just so different!

His head is resting on one of the dragon's forelegs and his arms are wrapped around the other with his face pressed against the paw. The disturbance from Toothless poking around causes Firefly to stir in his slumber. He unconsciously grips the dragon's foreleg tighter and sighs in contentment as Toothless pulls him in closer to delicately lick his neck. Through such close contact with his rider, Toothless can feel his rider's light heartbeat and the gentle pull of each breath. If he focuses really hard on the projected thoughts, the dragon can catch shadowy glimpses of his rider's dreams. Even when sleeping, Firefly's mind is hard at work seeing the unseen, knowing the unknown, and creating new thought patterns.

It all looks so… peaceful.

I dive into my pool of water and roll around in it.

 _{We started doing this only a couple days ago. My rider sleeps better with me and I sleep better with him. I will admit I see him as much more than just a means to an end, now. He is my Firefly - my light in the darkness. He provides comfort and guidance. He has taught me that when you can't fly anymore, you crawl, and if you can't do that, you find someone to carry you. With how much more influence the queen has gained, we cannot continue to crawl on like we have been. We need help. We cannot do this alone. With the help of Firefly and Zealot and any other land-striders who will follow them, we can actually make a difference.}_

I still just don't know. It is a deeply-ingrained survival instinct that when someone tries to kill you, you try to kill them right back. Toothless broke this simple piece of common sense by sparing Firefly when he was cut loose from the entangled vines, even during the immense depression that came from remembering his past as a mindless thrall to the queen, but it was this very act of mercy that saved his own life in the end.

He had no basis to suspect anything aside from malice from a land-strider. Could he know something we don't? Perhaps, what guides his actions is a knowledge he doesn't even know he has? He is the first to train a land-strider to do something other than kill dragons and how can I simply ignore that?

With land-strider pets, maybe we can take the fight to the queen. Maybe, they will learn to see us as intelligent and sentient creatures instead of mindless beasts. Maybe, they will learn to organize their thoughts when they think with their lips so they can be better understood by us. Maybe, someday, they will even learn to _hear_ us.

Maybe, but… now… the queen will surely make a move soon and we have only two willing participants. Toothless has ensured our doom unless something blindingly brilliant and miraculous happens before then.

Toothless gives me the thought projection equivalent of a gentle nudge. _{Spite, you are looking at the first creature to give a dragon something worth living for aside from our war against the queen. I want that demon destroyed as much as you do, but Firefly is our only hope to do any real damage. I realize I'm asking for a great deal of trust. I must also admit I don't know what plan Firefly is forming in his mind. However, I can sense the determination and resolve. I can see it in his eyes and feel it in his hum. He would die to protect me and I know it beyond any doubt. I would die protecting him and he knows it. He also knows that we are all cooperating with him so far and has thought of ways to make this work. Please trust me. Trust Firefly. Do not waste this opportunity. Nothing like this has ever happened. Who knows if something like this will ever happen again.}_

See, _this_ is why I was sleeping! Now my brain hurts again!

 _{You better be absolutely right about everything, Toothless. Otherwise, the queen will feast on our corpses.}_


	6. Turned to Dust

**A/N:**

Easter Egg reveal time. The new name Fishbone is sporting is the TV series from which I stole some lines. If you've ever watched Firefly, I'm sure you'll recognize the line from the main theme, "You'll never take the sky from me!"

In one scene, Mal tormented a disarmed and downed opponent at the conclusion of a sword fight.

"Mercy is the mark of a great man."  
*STAB*  
"Guess I'm just a _good_ man."  
*STAB*  
"Well, I'm alright."

I gave Nose those line as he tortured the chubby one.

Some other random quotes I used: "Sleepiness is weakness of character," "I think you have a problem with your brain being missing," "When someone tries to kill you, you try to kill them right back.," and "When you can't run anymore, you crawl... and when you can't do that, you find someone to carry you."

I'll admit I relied on just Googling most of the Firefly quotes. I only watched a couple episodes of the show. More of a Babylon 5 fan.

The pop culture Easter eggs for this chapter are from a pretty old movie, but definitely involves dragons. Well, _**a**_ dragon.

* * *

 **Turned to Dust**

Outside my cave, I can hear them. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, all howling and clamoring as loud as they can. Their projected thoughts wash around like a muddy river of chaos, churning with excitement and anticipation. Through all this confusion, though, there is one undercurrent that shines through.

They want to see blood. They want to see death. They want to see me, Spite, the nightmarish monster, pass judgment on their favored dragon slayer.

If they were not mere land-striders, I might feel flattered.

Aside from that, what they're thinking with their lips sounds like they're choking on their own tongues. We know, from knowledge imprinted on us, passed through several generations of history, that they're cheering for my "adversary". They're excited to watch him fight me and it sounds like they have great confidence in him.

I _still_ don't know what I'm going to do with Firefly.

His ability to communicate with his dragon has improved. No, he cannot hear Toothless one little bit. Well, he can hear the growling, grunting, purring, and crooning, but that's the extent of it all. However, he's a fast learner. Toothless is now able to understand his rider quite well with the improvements Firefly has been making at projecting more clearly defined thoughts. It's far from perfect, but understandable… most of the time.

Firefly has come up with some interesting ideas ever since he and Toothless flew to the queen's nest.

What if _everyone_ on this island turned into a Firefly or a Zealot?

I can carry several land-striders at once. During the next raid, I could fly over a dragon and a land-strider could jump onto his back. Maybe I'll be nice and tackle and pin the dragon down, first. Then, that land-strider can free said dragon from the mind-snare by touching him. Then _that_ dragon can carry more land-striders to free even more.

We would enumerate like wildfire. In just two raids, the queen would lose half her dragons. We could starve her to death in no time flat!

Then again, the queen is old and clever. She would be smart about things. Why would she give us such an opportunity? With her ever-expanding range in which she can send out her dragon minions, would she even bother raiding this island? Would she just send every single dragon at her disposal to burn us all to a crisp this coming night before we can make a move?

Success depends on so many factors. Will the other land-striders listen to Firefly? Would they let us use them as… as… mind-snare scramblers? Maybe they're not ready for such a drastic change in lifestyle. Maybe they'll just throw themselves at each other in a great turmoil of confusion so that the queen can grow fat on their corpses. If I make the wrong decisions today, we all die in vain.

No pressure!

A loud groaning sound cuts into my pondering to signal that my cave walls will be loosened in a moment. The roaring from outside instantly subsides and the overall emotional hum transitions to the solid tone of suspense. I squeeze out a good amount of fuel through the pores all over my scaly hide in preparation.

Rock wants to give him a chance. Greedy is uncertain. Spit and Sputter want him to give them more fish with that wonderful grass stuffed inside. Nose is _still_ sharing new ways he wants to render Firefly to a bloody pile of bones and flesh. I still can't decide.

 _{Spite, do not hurt my rider or I will kill you. I am placing a great deal of trust in allowing you near him.}_

Oh Toothless, Toothless, little Toothless. You did not let me near your rider. You let your _rider_ come to _me_.

 _{Actually, I was thinking of killing Firefly just for the fun of it because I am the embodiment of pure evil.}_

I really do want to give Firefly a chance. The potential rewards are so very tantalizing. Toothless really has nothing to worry about… except that we all may die if Firefly doesn't pull through and all this doesn't work out absolutely perfectly.

Ya know. Small fish.

It's not like the black dragon is helpless, anyway. After flying his rider to the edge of the forest, as close to the land-strider nest as he dared, he simply crouched in the ferns - waiting in seclusion.

 _{Just be careful with my land-strider. I have full and complete trust in him. He will not fail us. Just don't do anything rash.}_

 _What? Me, rash? Ha!_

Besides, it's not _Firefly_ I'm worried about. It's all the other land-striders we need to convince - the Beast in particular. I have to agree with Toothless on one point. We _are_ losing this war against the queen. If nothing changes, she will only grow more powerful and our situation more hopeless. Let's face it - if there's one thing worse than waking up one day to realize your whole past was an exercise in futility and shame, it's all that _and_ knowing there is nothing you can accomplish to redeem yourself.

I need to do this right. As Nose is quick to point out, I need to keep in mind what's best for us. I need to make quick decisions. I need to maintain control over this situation. I'm going to put an end to this.

I have to try.

The groaning from my cave wall dies down, signifying it's loosened.

 _I am fire. I am fury._

I light myself ablaze, take in a deep breath of air, and allow some of my fuel to collect in my mouth.

 _I'm ready._

WHAM!

The cave walls fly open as I explode into the arena. Burning fuel splatters all around, bathing the entrance in fire.

Step one is to establish respect for myself and all of us dragons and there's no better candidate in the whole world to do this. I bellow out a thunderous roar and rapidly claw up to the iron web above and race around it, trailing a plume of fire and smoke. Another intake of air and I let out a stream of immolation between the strands of the iron web and into the gathered land-striders, causing them to frantically push out of the way.

 _{I am death! I am desolation! You will respect me, puny insects!}_

A couple more gouts of fire provoke an amusing combination of excitement and panic as I race across the iron web before moving on to step two: acknowledge Firefly. The flames all over my body are slowly snuffed out as I halt the flow of fuel out of my pores. I crane my head up to look down at Firefly. He's just as scrawny and unimposing as I recall from previous training sessions, but his eyes and his emotional hum tell the tale of determination and resolution that doesn't quite fit such a small creature.

Slowly, deliberately, I stretch out a wing to the stone floor and lower myself down to creep towards him. He slowly backs away and gulps at my sheer power. I lower my head - which is bigger than Firefly - to his level.

As a peace offering, he drops his tiny shiny claw and wooden carapace. I wasn't really intimidated by it - if he _really_ wanted to hurt me, he would have known to go with the stone on a stick - but I'll take it as a show of trust.

He looks up, scanning the hundreds surrounding us outside the iron web and locks eyes with the Beast. Beast is the alpha on this island. Everyone follows his lead. If we persuade him, we persuade them all. If he turns against us…

 _{I'm not one of them.}_

With that, Firefly pulls off the horned head covering and tosses it to the side.

 _Well, I can see that already, Firefly. You should also be warned that I am not like the other dragons, either._

This takes us to step three: make an unmistakable sign to the other land-striders that they should let us use them as mind-snare scramblers. I flick my eyes over to see the Beast stand up with an affronted look. Back to Firefly, I notice he's halted his slow retreat from me, arms held out towards me, murmuring soothingly. He looks up at all those surrounding us, thinking to them with his lips.

 _{They're not what we think they are. We don't have to kill them.}_

 _Oh, the symmetry, Firefly. It seems you lands-striders and us dragons are two wings on the same desperate bird. All along, we misunderstood how to properly train and use you little critters._

Focusing on the hum all around me, though, I'm starting to have doubts. It's discordant and derisive. They're not accepting his message. Beast leans forward to grip the iron web, muttering something. Firefly, fingertips almost touching my snout, stops and stomps his foot.

 _{No! You're all wrong! Listen to me!}_

They all do the exact opposite as their grumbling increases in volume to drown out Firefly. The overall hum becomes even more turbulent.

CLANG!

I snap my eyes to the Beast, who just struck a solid member of the iron web with his large stone on a stick. Fury and betrayal pour off of him as he glares down at us. Firefly promised he would convince the others to let us use them as mind-snare scramblers, but everyone is in an uproar.

I knew it! All this time spent waiting and watching has dulled my mind. Firefly was never on our side! If he wanted to help us, the Beast would be calmly watching, not standing and roaring at us.

I should have known. I should have seen the signs.

We had a deal!

I narrow my eyes at Firefly and snap at him, but he runs away. Claws scrape against stone as I lurch after him. The chomp of my teeth echoes around the stone walls, but he manages to duck to the side just in time.

Rock's projections faintly sound in the back of my mind.

 _{Calm yourself, Spite! Your hum is a whirlwind of confusion. Don't burn up everything we've work for!}_

 _{Don't tell me what to do! Firefly betrayed us. See the Beast? Feel his rage and anger? It's all around us from every one of them! Firefly has pushed his luck too far and I will not just stand here and die for him!}_

Nose also throws in his opinion.

 _{I knew he'd betray us! Either that or his plan simply failed. Spite, you must put things back in order! Kill Firefly! Only then can we go back to training land-striders. It is the only way.}_

 _{What do you think I'm doing right now?!}_

Of course, Toothless is far from thrilled. _{Spite, if you harm my rider-}_

Whatever! Thank the egg that hatched me I can shut them out of my head. He betrayed us. Firefly betrayed us! We risked everything on the hopes that he could do something with all we've given to him. Now, the land-striders are all turned against us and the queen will come for us and we have gained absolutely nothing for all the risks we've taken.

Firefly needs to die now. He's expendable.

He's useless!

Step four: kill!

I suck in a breath and shoot out a gout of fire, but he rolls to the side. My vision swims with red as rage sets in. I bare my teeth down on him, but he ducks at the last possible instant.

I just can't believe it! All this trust we put in him and what do we get? Betrayal!

He ducks behind a wooden construct holding several shiny claws as if that could protect him. As he frantically tries to grab a wooden carapace, I crash through only to see that he's already rolling back to his feet to my left and running away.

 _Come back here and die for me! Stop making this difficult!_

WHACK!

Ow! A flying stone on a stick smacks me in the snout. I recover and glare at my assailant.

Zealot!

She's defending Firefly? Then she can die along with him! It's a shame, really. She was the best student in our training sessions. I was actually considering dying to her until these recent events.

I leap forward, full of fire and fangs, but she's just as quick as Firefly.

 _Stop running little land-striders! Little insects! Come here and die the death you deserve!_

All I have to do is kill them. Yes, if I can do that, this situation can be salvaged. Only Firefly and - more recently - Zealot have become complacent around us dragons. If I kill them, maybe things can go back to normal. Maybe the queen won't really send all her dragons to burn us all to cinders. Maybe we can continue as we have been to train land-striders to kill dragons in order to starve the queen.

 _While I'm dreaming about impossible things, I would also like a fresh shark, please. One from the deep waters beyond these islands that tastes so scrumptious._

Zealot scuttles through an opening in the arena wall. Beast is there, protective arm around her, waving Firefly in.

Wait, I'm confused. Only a moment ago, Beast was enraged at Firefly and full of murderous intent. Zealot defended Firefly, so why is Beast defending her and trying to lead Firefly to safety?

What even is reality?!

A motion to the side catches my attention. Well, look who it is. The little devil himself, trying to escape so he can cause even more trouble.

 _Now, where do you think you're going, little insect?_

I let out a river of fire. He jumps back and ducks, but my fire still splashes all around the opening in the wall, effectively trapping him in here with me while keeping everyone else out. Firefly gasps as he stumbles backward and falls to the ground.

I hop up against the side of the wall, wing talons wrapped around the iron web for support, coil my haunches, and pounce. One claw catches his backside, sending him to the ground with a nasty gash, and I press my talons around him. His breath hitches in his throat as he stares up at his own doom.

 _Alright, little Firefly. Little insect. You're going to tell me why you betrayed us. You're going to tell me how you beguiled the black dragon. You're going to explain why_ nothing _makes sense!_

 _Then, you're going to die!_

KABOOM!

 _What is it now?! I'm busy!_

Wait, I recognize that high-pitched shriek. I flick my head left just in time to see a black shape shoot out from the cloud of smoke where Toothless' fire hit the web. He slams into my side, knocking me off Firefly and the breath from my lungs.

 _{Filth! Mangy rodent! Don't touch my rider! I will kill you!}_

 _{Who asked you to interfere? I had_ everything _under control!}_

I can hardly see him in the smoke, but my flailing wings and legs keep him from wrapping his teeth around my neck. I bare my fangs down on him, but taste only a mouthful of that dead animal hide clinging to his scales.

I flick him off of me and we both tumbled to a crouch. Toothless places himself between me and Firefly. If Toothless is defending Firefly, then he has also betrayed us. He has developed too much of an emotional attachment to a land-strider.

I bellow out an angry roar.

 _{Firefly has betrayed us, Toothless! Stupid dragon! Do you really think that anything good can come from angering the alpha? We need damage control, now. We need to put things back in order and that cannot happen while Firefly is alive.}_

 _{You are wrong you miserable worm! My rider will make things right. I trust him completely and you will not touch him!}_

 _{Oh, we'll see about that.}_

I leap forward. Toothless snaps at my neck and I barely avoid his teeth by rolling to the side. We face off again and I attack, but he's too quick. He always twists away from my fangs while presenting the threat of his own to my neck. I'm much larger than him, but I can't get near Firefly with this annoying dragon in the way.

The land-striders - having collected their wits by now - start pouring into the arena through the iron web like a waterfall. The moment their feet touch the ground, they stampede towards us, shiny claws at the ready.

Fine. Whatever! Toothless can enjoy his last moment alive with his stupid land-strider pet. I'm going back to my cave. The land-striders can kill them for me.

They all shove past me, completely ignoring any threat I could pose. I know when I should lay low. Toothless, on the other wing, is fully lost to the world around him. A blind rage has taken hold of his mind as he fights against the swarm closing in on him and Firefly. In his rage-induced frenzy, he manages to smack several of the critters out of the way. Not too bad for a dragon his size, but he's lost this fight before it even began.

From the far side of the arena, the Beast charges in, broad, shiny claw held at his side as he runs full-tilt to take down Toothless. But… Toothless is defending Firefly… and the Beast, who was full of anger and murderous intent at Firefly for trying to befriend a dragon, was trying to save him from me a moment ago.

Now Beast is trying to kill Firefly's protector because…

Because…

I give up! Nothing makes sense anymore!

 _I am a gannet. Caw caw!_

Toothless narrows on the Beast and charges forward in quick bounds, heedless of the shiny claw raised to strike him down. He coils his haunches to launch at the Beast and the two collide at high speed and tumble as they grapple at each other.

My jaw drops to the ground.

 _Really? Really!? You have_ got _to be_ kidding _me!_

After all the dragons that Beast had slain, he's overwhelmed by… by… the black dragon! The one who has betrayed us for selfish reasons and is smaller than so many other dragons the Beast has killed in the past. Somehow, Toothless ends up pinning that red-maned biped to the ground. Beast can only look up in horror as Toothless rears his head back, gathering a large amount of explosive fuel in his mouth.

 _Well, Goodbye, Beast. You have become a disappointment._ All _you land-striders are a disappointment and your corpses will make the queen fat. Maybe you will give her indigestion and accomplish more in death than in life._

Stupid Toothless! Stupid Beast! Stupid Firefly! Stupid land-striders! Stupid _island_! Everything is lost and nothing makes sense anymore! Why is everything so confusing?!

 _{STOP! NO!}_

Firefly's desperate plea projects in the most insistent, coercing, listen-to-me-now sort of thought stream that _somehow_ breaks through Toothless' blind frenzy. Green gas seeps out from the dragon's maw as he gulps it back down and looks over at Firefly with a disappointed and petulant expression. I suppose I can take some consolation that both dragon and rider are just as confused about everything as I am, but Firefly was so sure about this one thing to save the Beast from death.

However, no good deed goes unpunished. Firefly is roughly hauled back by some while many more deliver hefty blows to the dragon's snout, grinding his chin into the stone. Beast picks himself up and glares disdainfully at the dragon and someone offers him a shiny claw to perform the deed of killing him.

If things aren't confusing enough as is, he declines the offer and turns his back to walk away.

Alright. I can take a hint. I can say I kinda expected that. The world has decided that logic holds no power today, so I've begun to expect the illogical to make sense to _someone_. The fact that this makes no sense at all justifies everything.

Whatever! I'm all out of fire, scratched up, and tired. I'm going to my cave. Someone wake me up before we all die. I want to watch it happen.

########

* * *

########

In the end, I didn't really go to sleep. Too wound-up. I simply curled up in my cave to passively observe all the drama surrounding me.

A couple land-striders pushed my cave walls shut to lock me in. They had the most befuddled look on their faces.

Hey, if nothing makes sense anymore, why should _I_ be the exception? I'm not going to go out there and make a fuss about fighting until a hundred land-striders pile on top and kill me. What difference does it make whether I kill these idiots or the queen sends her swarm of dragons to do it? After all, maybe these fools will slay a few of her dragons before they all perish.

Before my cave walls shut, though, I could see Toothless under a pile of land-striders. From the projected thoughts we caged dragons could pick up, they decided to put him in the caves with us. Since the only cave not currently holding a dragon was apparently filled with random stuff - they didn't anticipate me still being alive to occupy a cave - Toothless was stuck sharing a cave with Nose.

The mink dragon made no attempt to escape when they opened up the wall to shove the dazed Toothless inside. Without a land-strider pet, we're all afraid to even consider leaving this island, let alone the iron web. Besides, Nose is eager to sink his claws into that traitorous pile of scales.

He simply paces back and forth at the back of his cave, growling quietly, waiting. A steady flow of impressions flows out from him for the dual purpose of allowing us other dragons to see what's going on and so that Toothless knows his humiliation is being broadcast and chronicled by all of us for the indefinite future.

After all, if a dragon falls in the forest and nobody gets to hear about it, does it make a thud?

Toothless stumbles unsteadily as many hands shove him in. Some of that iron webbing enshrouds his head to keep his muzzle closed. The moment the cave walls shut, Toothless flops onto his back, stretches out, and howls his grief.

Nose pounces on the black dragon's underside, digging his claws in, and hisses down at him.

 _{Give me one good reason why I should not kill you here and now, Toothless!}_

Toothless simply lay there, accepting the abuse from the smaller dragon, making no attempt to preserve himself. Droplets of blood start to prick out from the underside of his thick neck where the claws are kneading his scaly hide.

 _{Do not think that I am so helpless, Nose.}_

Says the dragon whose maw is bound shut.

 _{I may have a throbbing headache, but that does not mean you could kill me unless I allowed it. You don't know how it feels, though. They're going to kill Firefly. I heard their projected thoughts as they condemned him to death. The Beast was undecided, but others talked him into it. That is why you_ should _kill me. I don't want to witness my rider's death. It would be worse than the demonic queen's mind snare.}_

Nose suddenly halts and sits upright on the dragon's upturned belly. A trail of bloody footprints spots the black scales, but only superficial damage was done.

 _{Then that would be all the reason I need to make sure you live a little longer. This is all your fault! You trusted Firefly and we trusted you. We trusted you! You intentionally deceived us! Somehow, you learned the art of deception from that land-strider and betrayed us for your own selfish gain. Firefly's plan was doomed to fail and you knew it!}_

Toothless casually wriggles a little on his back to find a more comfortable position.

 _{He admitted that it felt wrong to approach his people in this manner. This plan was a bit rushed. He had no choice but to face off against Spite today because he won the previous fight against Rock. Firefly tried to avoid winning that fight, so you can blame_ Rock _that he was forced to do_ anything _in the first place, today. Still, he figured that being the clear winner in these training sessions would at least make them hear him out. He kept telling me that there had to be a better way, but it was the best he could come up with so quickly. Besides, when you think about it, It's really Spite's fault!}_

 _What?!_

 _{What?! I did everything right! I gave your rider the benefit of the doubt out there. You and Firefly assured us that this would work. You told us we would gain the trust of the land-striders. If they want to kill your rider, then I'm all for it. Let him die for his own stupidity.}_

In a blur of motion, Toothless rolls upright, flinging Nose to the side. Nose flutters and lands on his talons, hissing and glaring up at the black dragon. Toothless snarls and paces back and forth in front of Nose, knowing that my eyes are behind his.

 _{You know nothing, Spite! Firefly had all those land-striders right where he wanted them. The chaos that ensued after you attacked him would have been avoided if you gave him more time. He does not think like us. He does not use the direct approach and rely on brute strength. His accomplishments are many, but his ways are very subtle and often indirect. It is your fault that we are in this position now.}_

 _{How can you say that?! How can you be so sure of your rider? The passive hum of all the land-striders turned sour and they started roaring at him. That sounds like a sure sign of failure to me. I don't see how that could turn to_ anyone's _favor!}_

Toothless grinds to a halt and rolls his eyes at us. He casually walks over to the pool of water to lap up some and we claw at his tail in frustration at his attitude. Toothless thrashes his tail around to shake us off so he can face us again.

 _{Of course you don't see how because you cannot think! Ask yourself, how has Firefly survived this long when he is so small and weak? This whole culture of land-striders knows only war, struggle, and death. The strong cannot allow the weak to persist. The moment FIrefly took his first breath, it was clear he would be underdeveloped. He told me himself. They normally would have thrown him off a cliff the day he took his first breath. Yet, they didn't. That alone should demand one's attention. How would he have survived so long when so many others of his stature now feed the fish?}_

 _Umm…_

 _{I don't know. What relevance does this hold, anyway?}_

 _{It means everything! He is a queen. He can control them. Maybe not in the same manner the demonic queen can, but he can force cooperation from them in some way and to some degree. Everything Firefly does is subtle and indirect. Throughout his whole life, he has learned to survive when he should have died. He can manipulate others without them even realizing they are being manipulated. He has learned to make them think they are satisfying their own will while giving him what he wants. That is how he approached an angry, maimed, and starving dragon in the forest and didn't die. That is how Zealot, who was determined to stop Firefly or die trying, was persuaded to his side. He has some sort of innate ability to know what is the right thing to do and what he can get away with.}_

 _{That changes nothing! The Beast was not persuaded!}_

Toothless flicks his tail into the pool of water and splashes us.

 _{Not immediately, of course, you simple-minded dragon! It would have taken time, but you took that away from Firefly. You have no self-control, Spite. You interfered simply because you were frightened by a loud noise!}_

 _{I was not frightened! I was only… startled.}_

 _{My rider could have made things work out if you gave him time. It was_ you _who caused things to turn out the way they did and your pathetic excuses change nothing. My Firefly has a dragon's heart. No, on second thought, that would be an understatement. He is greater than you. He is greater than me. He is greater than_ all _of us put together!}_

Us? greater than… _us_?

 _{You are not one of us. You sided with him and his ways fly against ours.}_

 _{Then he is greater than all of_ you _put together. He is willing to swallow his pride for the sake of progress. He is driven to obtain results and is not blinded by arrogance. Don't clutter up a clever scheme with morality. Firefly was all set until you ruined it. Now, he's going to die! They have already passed judgment. You're the sad remains of dead systems and dead beliefs and now, thanks to your incompetence, I have nothing to live for. Not anymore.}_

We shoot a puff of fire at Toothless' snout. It's more a gesture of irritation that would only sting his nostrils more than anything else. A mink dragon's fire is less potent as it's not as hot as an adder's, nor does it burn as long as mine.

 _{It doesn't matter anymore. Firefly will die and things will go back to the way they always have been. I'm curious, though, about one thing, Toothless. If you have nothing to live for, what's stopping you from killing yourself? You can drown yourself in that pool of water or smash your head into the cave wall until it splits open. It means nothing to me, but what is keeping you alive?}_

Toothless lowers himself to the ground and curls up, tucking his head under his tail and wing.

 _{Dreams die hard and you hold them in your claws long after they've turned to dust. You may have taken everything of value from me, but there are some things I have not shared with all of you.}_

 _{Clearly!}_

Toothless projects a memory from a few days ago. Through his eyes, I see a blue sky stretching out in all directions. The sun beamed down from above and white, fluffy clouds lay below. A stiff breeze caressed the dragon's wings as he ascended with a giddy, carefree sort of jubilance.

Nose is about to pounce the dragon for taunting us with the fact that he has been flying while we've been stuck in these caves, but in the memory, something went wrong. Firefly slipped off the dragon's back. The two tumbled down, separated, each incapable of flying on his own.

At first, Toothless naturally panicked as the foreign sense of fear and helplessness clawed at his heart. He flared his wings and tried to control his descent, but it was a vain effort with the artificial tail fin flopping loosely in the wind. He even managed to hit his rider with his tail in all his uncontrolled and frantic spinning.

Firefly, on the other wing, was simply splayed out, telling his dragon what to do. They passed through the clouds and no progress was made. The ground was approaching and Toothless became even more frantic and erratic. Death was certain for both.

Then, Firefly's advice _finally_ broke through to Toothless' scattered mind. The dragon tucked in his wings and completely relaxed his body, allowing himself to fall uncontrolled, but in a much more predictable manner. He fought against every single instinct and impulse to buck and thrash. The rider managed to maneuver close enough to wrap a couple fingers around the strips of animal hide clinging to the dragon, swing into position, and deploy the tailfin.

They weren't safe yet, though. Toothless spread his wings, gritting his teeth as the wind almost tore them off completely. By the time they were able to level off, sea stacks and rocky archways surrounded them on all sides. They were flying insanely fast and ascending to bleed off speed simply wasn't an option.

Firefly, who previously struggled to remember how to use the tailfin properly to allow his dragon to fly straight, ascend, or turn, suddenly became one with the dragon. As they navigated the tight obstacles at breakneck speeds, the two were suddenly perfectly synced. They navigated the maze of death and broke out into the clear air with the confidence that they could conquer anything together.

Greedy snorts.

 _{So what? You and your rider managed to fly. What has that to do with the fact that you two doomed us all?}_

Toothless stands and gives us an annoyed huff.

 _{Before we fell, my rider was struggling to remember the proper positions for my tailfin. His responses were sluggish and we both had difficulty in coordinating with each other. However, something simply fell into place. As we navigated those obstacles, Firefly was perfectly synced with my mind and actions. Every sway of his body on my back, every movement of the tailfin he controlled was absolutely flawless. He was deaf to my projections, but he could still anticipate my every breath and movement. What do you think accounts for that difference?}_

Nobody bothers to respond. We're all just tired of the black dragon's games.

 _{This is what I have been trying to tell you thick-headed dragons. Firefly has some sort of sense we cannot even begin to understand. When it really matters, he knows what is the right thing to do. He can see that which isn't, but needs to be, and knows how to bring it to pass. Ever since then, I have learned to place my full and complete trust in Firefly and have had no regrets about such a decision. It is this trust in Firefly that preserves me now. If I end my own suffering, I limit his options. Even after with all the chaos Spite has caused today, I still believe in my rider to make things right.}_

Nose hisses at Toothless on my behalf. _{What you believe has no relevance here. Firefly will soon be dead and so will you.}_

 _{That may be so, but it only shows how foolish you all are. We are all maimed dragons. We are all falling to our death with no hope to survive or accomplish anything. That was true long before I met Firefly. Only when you start treating these land-striders as equals instead of fodder for your own silly plans will you ever see progress. Until then, failure is inevitable and the ground will break your body.}_

Toothless sighs as he curls up to tuck his head under his wing. His passive hum is an impossible combination of despair and hope. The grief pouring out from him is almost enough to make one pity him.

Almost.

Suddenly, Toothless jumps up and stiffens as his sensor lobes pulsate and twitch. He's definitely trying to pick up something too faint for anyone else to hear.

 _{Firefly is trying to warn us. He knows I can understand him and he also knows we have been in communication from so far away, so he figured out that I can hear him from wherever he is. He's trying to tell us that all the land-striders on this island have gone mad. They're going to try to find the queen's nest and attack it!}_

Rock snorts from her cave. _{This will not be the first time, nor will it likely be the last. They always get lost and disoriented in the fog around the island.}_

 _{Not this time, Rock. My rider says they're going to use a dragon to find the nest. They're going to trap one of us on their wooden vessels and navigate by observing how the queen's pull affects us. We can't allow them to take us! They could disrupt the queen and who knows what horrors that will cause!}_

Oh…

Oh no!

This is bad! Very very bad! I never considered such a possibility, but now that Toothless brings it up, it sounds crazy enough to actually work. Here on this island, we're safe from the mind snare because of how far away we are in combination with the great number of land-striders and their chaotic thought patterns to interfere. Toothless could fly to the nest and back, but he had direct contact with his rider, which amplified their mental interference by a factor of… oh, about infinity.

However, if one of us is taken over the ocean with only a few land-striders nearby who wouldn't even deign to touch the dragon, the queen's pull would be irresistible. She cannot be denied. Even something so simple as watching the dragon's head twitch as he mindlessly tries to fly to the queen's nest would be enough for the land-striders to figure out how to navigate the cluster of sea stacks in the dense fog. If all the able-bodied land-striders on this island made it to the nest… I really don't know what would happen.

If they travel there quickly enough, the queen's dragons may not be able to respond in time, especially if they're out on a raid. If they manage to anger the queen enough to make her leave the volcano in which she sits, then that would spell disaster. They would be ants compared to her. They would be crushed and burned.

There's nothing wrong with that, but once the queen is all riled up, it can only be bad for the dragons. Once she's up and about, she will not settle down until she knows any resistance has been squished. She may be content to stay where she is for now, but if she is forced to leave her volcano, she may end up flying elsewhere, taking all her dragons along, and then enslave even _more_ dragons wherever she goes.

Everyone else is catching on to the implications. Spit and Sputter are in a frenzy.

 _{We can't let them take us!}_

 _{Us?! What about_ Me _?!}_

 _{Same dragon, stupid! I won't allow them to take me. The queen will claim my mind again. I'd rather die than fall into her mind snare again. Sputter, bite my head off so they can't take me!}_

 _{No._ You _bite off_ my _head. I don't want to lose my mind again!}_

 _{I can't do that now. Tell you what. You bite off_ my _head now, then_ I _will bite off_ your _head after that.}_

 _{Only if you promise to make it as painless as possible.}_

 _{I promise!}_

 _{Then we have a deal!}_

Did… that… really… just… happen. I knew it. I'm surrounded by idiots.

It's too late, though. Before the two-headed dragon can decapitate itself, the walls to Nose's cave open. Desperate to not be the one who loses his mind to the queen again, he shoots out. However, a wooden carapace slams into his head and a land-strider wraps strong fingers around the dragon's neck in a painful chokehold.

Toothless also frantically tries to escape, but there are simply too many and his options are limited with the iron webbing holding his mouth shut. It looks like he will be our sacrificial dragon to lead these land-striders to their certain demise.

Alright, _now_ it's time for me to go to sleep. I am safe for now. My mind is my own and that will continue for the foreseeable future. Whatever happens, will happen. It's all out of my control. We're all still dead, but at least it's not like everyone is depending on me to decide the fate of us all anymore.

Got to focus on the silver linings.


	7. Still Alive

**A/N:  
** Easter Egg time. My pop-culture reference last chapter is a bit dated: "Dragonheart". It was an awesome movie for its time that led to other significantly less awesome sequels. It also proves, once and for all, that Sean Connery is the most badass dragon in the universe. Here are the quotes I used:

"Dreams die hard and you hold them in your hands claws long after they've turned to dust."  
"If a dragon falls in the forest and nobody gets to hear about it, does it make a thud?"  
"Don't clutter up a clever scheme with morality!"  
"You're the sad remains of dead systems and dead beliefs!"  
I really, really wanted to include the quote, "I merely chewed in self-defense, but I never swallowed." I tried so hard to find a way to hammer that square peg into a round hole, but, alas, no such fortune.

Also, many thanks to Colorful Crayola for being my beta reader. She really puts the "heart" in "Dragonheart." I have no clue what that means, so… yeah.

* * *

 **Still Alive**

Electrocuted.

Shot.

Drowned.

Crushed.

Burned by acid.

Yes, there are many ways that I would enjoy watching that traitorous black dragon die. We placed our trust in him. He said Firefly could help us fight the queen better than our previous methods. It seemed too crazy to believe, but we believed him anyway.

Now, we're all going to die - and that's if we're lucky.

I can hear her. The queen. She's very faint, but still there. My mind remains my own, thanks to the distance and remaining land-striders on this island, but I can feel some sort of tug. As long as she stays on her volcanic island, we should be fine.

 _If_ she stays.

We're all keeping a constant watch on the intensity of the queen's pull on us. At the first sign that she is on the move and in a better position to take control of us, well, submerging my head in the pool of water and taking a deep breath is probably the fastest way to kill myself.

From what we could pick up off the land-striders' scattered projected thoughts, most of them have left the island. Probably every able body is now floating across the ocean… on nicely flammable wooden vessels… towards a dragon the size of a mountain… who controls over a thousand other fire-breathing dragons. Hopefully, all those land-striders will drown on the way over. If they manage to enrage the queen, life for us will become very unpleasant.

The four of us captive dragons have been contemplating our options. Rock suggested that maybe the land-striders, with their wooden, rock-hurling contraptions, can take down the queen and our lives will improve by a factor of infinity. Maybe such a quantity of land-striders can make up for the immeasurable difference in size. Maybe this was really Toothless' plan all along and everything's under control. Maybe Toothless didn't _really_ betray us and he's actually off to save us.

Even _she_ chortled at her own joke.

Greedy thinks it's worth trying again to tame some land-striders as mind snare scramblers. If we each tame our own, we would be set for a while. Spit and Sputter are leaning in favor of trying that out, but they keep fighting over who will carry their land-strider pet.

Nose cares for nothing more than to sink his claws into Toothless. That dragon beguiled us all. He made up some tale of a better way to use land-striders all so we would spare his rider. Now he's leading them all to rouse the queen. If Nose had any clue that these land-striders would use that dragon to find the nest, they would have found nothing but a bloody pile of black scales when they opened the cave to pull him out.

I can't blame the mink dragon. He's been here the longest by far and training land-striders is the only life he's ever known. Uncountable generations of dragons have figured out the best way to reliably use land-striders to strike back at the queen from our captivity. In a single day, everything has been ruined by Toothless and his pet. Everything Nose has ever worked to accomplish has been instantly burned to cinders.

It wasn't my fault things went so horribly the previous day when I was let out of my cave to face Firefly; I think we can all agree on that. I followed our plan pretty well. It's Toothless who really messed up. In all honesty, I'm not even sure I can blame Firefly. He was trained by that dragon. He enabled Toothless, but it would be unfair to blame the pet for absorbing the behavior of his master.

Still, that doesn't mean we shouldn't put him down.

Somehow, though, he had escaped his appointed fate. As many hands shackled Toothless to a large slab of wood and lowered him onto one of those floating wooden vessels before setting off to burn up in a giant fireball, he projected some impressions he picked up. An old female land-strider intervened for Firefly by hitting them with her wooden stick that she uses as a third leg. Somehow, she made them abandon their task of carrying out Firefly's execution. Beast was relieved to see the change of events, as was that sour Stick-leg. The others, who appeared to be responsible for deciding and carrying out his fate, seemed put out.

Where Firefly is now is anyone's guess. He was spared from death, but I doubt he could just walk among the land-strider burrows on this island. If I were him I'd spread my wings and - oh, right, he doesn't have any. Still, I'm sure he's running as far away as he can to preserve his own life. I would bet my own scales that he's huddled in a cave on the far side of the island, hoping nobody ever finds him.

CLUNK!

That would be my cave walls loosening again. Another day, another shuffle from cave to cave. Maybe we can start anew and train more land-striders to kill the queen's dragons. This island has been through fat and lean times. Maybe the queen will stay put and the remaining land-striders will repopulate and at least limit how many dragons feed the queen.

Oh! Or, maybe, they'll all drown themselves in the ocean to become fish food so the queen can never receive any more from this island save for the scattering of wildlife a dragon may drag to her.

I slowly push my cave walls open and step into the daylight. Time to flex my wings and race around under the iron web and-

…

… And…

…

 _Oh. It's_ you _._

I slowly pick up my jaw from the ground. I can't believe it! Standing in the center of the arena is Firefly! He's not alone, though. The five others who were training with him stand in a loose cluster behind him.

Normally, there are wooden structures with all sorts of shiny claws and round carapace plates for the land-striders to use for fighting us, but there's nothing here. Not a single shiny claw in sight.

 _What's going on?_

Firefly isn't alone, but neither am I. All of us captive dragons are stepping into the open, all staring in confusion. This has never happened before. The land-striders learned a long, long time ago that fighting multiple dragons in this enclosed space is a death wish since we can approach from many different angles and have a lot of fire.

 _{You! Firefly! You die now!}_

Nose is the first to recover from his shock. He works himself into a rage and flings himself headlong at the troublesome critter. Age has made him wise and cunning, but sure can make him unreasonable at times. They're at our mercy, so there's no hurry to kill before we can see what they're up to, but Nose wants vengeance and blood.

None of us are fast enough to intercept him - not that any of us tried. However, as the blur of motion streaked towards Firefly, Nose was so focused on his target that he didn't notice Zealot shove Firefly to the side to step in the way until it was too late. In mid-leap - wings tucked in tight, claws outstretched, teeth ready to eviscerate - his face smashes into her iron shoulder covering, crumpling into a dazed heap.

Before even falling to the ground, fingers wrap around his slender neck and tail. Zealot stretches him in an intriguing hold with her elbow jammed into the dragon's back while her hands hold his neck and tail bent up backward so he can't use his fire, teeth, or even claws. He chokes out a pained squeak as she compresses his back and stretches him out from head to tail.

 _{When did she learn to do_ that _?! Is nobody going to help? This_ really _hurts! Are any of you even alive? Help me!}_

Nobody moves. I personally find Nose's predicament to be quite amusing.

 _{Don't worry. We will remember this maneuver and teach it to the other land-striders. You mink dragons can be a serious threat, after all.}_

Firefly is the first to intervene. He places one hand on Zealot's shoulder and another on the wrist of her hand holding Nose's neck. At first, she just glares at him, but her posture quickly softens at his calm insistence and her hum shifts from acrid defiance to shocked compliance. He gently plucks Nose from her grasp and kneels down to place him on the ground, but the dragon hastily leaps to freedom, giving Firefly some shallow scratches and causing him to stumble backward.

At the sudden realization of what exactly happened, Nose looks up at Firefly with utter confusion.

 _{I simply don't get it. I tried to kill him and he knows it. Zealot could have killed me, but now Firefly releases me from her grip? I suppose this proves just how insane he really is.}_

Rock takes a hop and a buzz of her wings forward to face Nose.

 _{And yet you have made no move to kill him now that you are able. Maybe he's not insane, but knows what he can get away with. This is what Toothless has been telling us all along. Firefly has some sort of understanding beyond his senses. You are no longer a threat to him, but you're also still alive. I don't know how he does it, but who can deny tangible results?}_

 _{I am still a threat! I could kill him right now!}_

 _{Then do it. I wouldn't try to stop you, as if I could.}_

Nose stares up at Firefly, who remains in his kneeling posture with both arms casually crossed on top of one knee, unphased by the dragon clawing at the stone and hissing venomously.

 _{I… can't. It just doesn't feel right. There's no point to it anymore. He has completely ruined our system for training land-striders. They're_ all _complacent Fireflies, now. Half of me realizes we've fallen so low there's nothing more to lose; the other half is curious to see what even greater disaster Firefly can concoct. Besides, he let me go when Zealot could have killed me. This only shows how insane he is, but if anyone calls me soft, I'll claw your eyes out!}_

Firefly rises and starts to take slow steps towards me. His posture, his expression, his hum, it all speaks of one pleading for reason. I watch dubiously as he thinks with his lips.

 _{I don't blame you for what happened yesterday, dragon. It's my fault when you think about it. I wanted to show them cooperation between you dragons and us land-striders, but they wouldn't even hear me out. I knew things would go awry, but I_ had _to try! I have been to the nest. I have seen the queen. I desire nothing more than to see you dragons freed from her grip. I really hope you can understand me and tell that I am being sincere. Toothless can always see right through a lie as if he can read my mind or something like that and I bet you can, too.}_

I snort at such a statement. Maybe this critter isn't as dense as I thought. Analyzing the subtleties of his hum and other projected thoughts, I can clearly see he is being very honest and humble. He knew they wouldn't hear him, but felt compelled to try, anyway. Granted, he was chosen to have the "honor" of fighting me, but did that really limit his options so greatly? Could the habits we've trained into our land-striders have negative effects that caused this very situation?

Nose jumps in front of Firefly and screeches at the mention of Toothless. I chuff indifferently. That dragon is gone. No point in extra drama. Nose, on the other wing, has been using the same method to train land-striders for so long. How could he _not_ feel betrayed by the dragon?

Toothless had options other than to send his rider to stir up this nest so greatly, right? Sure, he depended on Firefly for flight, but the dragon can communicate with him in some fashion and to some degree. If they knew things would turn out so terribly yesterday, the two could have flown off to find other land-striders who would hear them out. Their plan could have worked. It wasn't a flawed plan, but a flawed execution.

And it wasn't my fault.

Firefly smiles down at Nose as he idly fidgets with some iron rings dangling from some strips of hide clinging to his torso.

 _{You don't like Toothless?}_

Nose's response is to paw at the ground, growling. Firefly steps past him to stand directly in front of me. I suppose that statement was to test if we can understand him more than to inquire about Nose's disposition.

 _{The most frustrating part is that I had real hope that I could persuade them until that loud noise startled you, dragon. It's not your fault. It startled me as well.}_

I give a warning growl and Firefly's posture and hum turns apologetic. The reason I started attacking him so suddenly the other day wasn't that I was _startled_. I was… surprised.

 _{We need Toothless, nightmarish monster. Our first glimpse at a better future started with him. Now he's trapped and needs my help. You owe me nothing, but I beg for your assistance. Toothless needs me, but I cannot reach him. You can fly freely, but the queen will claim your mind. I can protect you from her, but can do nothing by myself.}_

Firefly drops to his knees - a posture of submission, as I've learned from our collective memories - and holds out a hand while closing his eyes. This is just like when he first touched the black dragon.

He… he's… trying to… befriend me?

I'm not so sure I want this.

Nose puffs out a little fire at the outstretched hand in contempt. It hardly singes the flesh, but Firefly cringes and cries out in pain. The other land-striders, standing a little ways behind him, gasp and start to rush forward, but he calls them off. All he does is hold that same posture, waiting, completely at our mercy, but entirely undeterred.

What is going on in that little head of his to cause such odd behavior? Surely, if he knows about the queen, he must also realize that our method of training land-striders is the only valid solution. If he knows how intelligent us dragons are, how can he believe that anything we haven't already thought about could be a good idea? He speaks of helping us, but he has done quite the opposite. We tried it his way - at the insistence of Toothless - and it blew up in our face.

Still, though, what harm is there in allowing him to touch me for a moment? I suppose I have to respect that sort of commitment. He's brave; I'll give him that. Crazy, maybe, but also brave. And scared witless. Yes, definitely scared. After all, instead of a lack of fear, might one consider bravery to be determination in spite of fear?

I cautiously extend my head forward.

 _{You poor thing, little Firefly. You should hope Toothless dies out there or the queen will take control of him again. Trust me, death is better.}_

I repeat that over and over again as I allow my snout to make contact with the outstretched hand. Firefly has always been deaf to dragons, as with any other land-strider, but maybe he'll pick up some sort of sense of my message? No harm in trying.

My scales make contact with his hand.

 _Aaaaand… nothing. Hmm. A bit disappointing. Not really unexpected and- wait, what is this?_

 _What… is_ this _?!_

 _WHAT IS THIS?!_

A flood of impressions pours over me. There's nothing distinct or certain, but a general sense of the essence of feeling and perception. I can feel his love for his dragon. Such concern for the wellbeing of another… it's… well, something I've never been exposed to before. He would give his life to save his dragon if he could. The desperation clutching at his heart is as great in magnitude as my hatred for the queen. Firefly is trying so hard to ward off the overwhelming sense of hopelessness and despair; his hope of us dragons helping him is literally the only reason he hasn't jumped off a cliff, yet.

Beyond the hum of primal emotions, the chaotic thoughts I could previously detect at a distance flare into focus. Each one, seemingly random, is but the entrance to a vast tunnel which twists and winds through the depths of consciousness. Each strand of perception I try to grasp onto shifts constantly, presenting a perpetually moving target I am hopeless to catch. Every single droplet of thought blossoms at the slightest touch into its own world, sending out a thousand more droplets.

All the stars in the sky are pebbles on a beach. Each pebble is the entire world. We look up and see a sky full of stars, which are only tiny specks on a single pebble, tossed about in the ocean. A single speck cascades into infinity only to collapse into nothing, but that nothing is everything.

His thoughts are so complex, with all the twists and turns and divisions and tangents, I can't even make sense of the barest summary. The chaos I could detect from afar turns into complexity, enigmas wrapped in mystery. I cannot extract any thoughts, but I can still understand what must be impressions he is trying to communicate to me.

A web of infinite intricacy sprawls out in front of me. Firefly is there, stuck to the web, reaching for the black dragon. A large spider crawls towards them. No, wait, it's not a spider. It's huge, with six eyes and a massive maw that eats dragons for a snack. Its body is shrouded in a black mist as only its head has ever been seen by Firefly, myself, or any other dragon.

The demonic queen.

Firefly and Toothless are trapped, but I'm free to move. I can simply swoop in, deliver Firefly to his dragon and… and… something. _Something_ … would happen. What that something is, nobody knows. It would be good for someone, possibly. Even Firefly has no clue what that _something_ is, but he knows that this _needs_ to happen.

Failure to reach his dragon would result in some terrible surprise. Not a fake, tragic surprise, like yesterday. A _real_ surprise with _tragic_ consequences.

My eyes snap open as I lurch backward. Firefly opens his own eyes and slowly rises to look up at me with a patient smile.

To my side, Nose hisses impatiently.

 _{Well, what did you see? Share it with us!}_

In a daze, I comply. It's so much to take in at once. I'm not even entirely sure what I just experienced.

Firefly takes a step forward, heedless of my confused growling.

 _{I hope you can see my sincerity, nightmarish monster. I need you. I don't have all the answers, but I know what must happen. I need you to trust me. Will you let me ride you? Will you take me to Toothless?}_

Nose scuttles up, hissing at both of us.

 _{Don't do it, Spite. He has caused enough damage already! He's a walking disaster. If you fly back to the queen, death would be a kind mercy the she will not grant you when she claims your mind again!}_

I look between the two and settle on a compromise, laying my neck down against the ground. Firefly gives a giddy squeal as he jumps up to straddle my neck. I raise myself back up, turn around and pace onward.

The moment Firefly realizes where I'm taking us, he jumps down and glares at me.

I don't want to leave this place! Nose is right. I just want to go back to my little cave and be safe there. I don't want to go face the queen. She can control my mind and she's so big and evil and… and…

Scary!

 _There! I admit it! Yes, I fear the queen. Are you happy, Firefly? I confessed to feeling scared. Maybe you could settle for that and we'll just call it a day. I want to stay here and hope for the best. Besides, what could I possibly do? What could_ any _of us do?_

We're _ants_ compared to her.

Firefly stomps his foot as he lays into me.

 _{What are you doing, dragon?! We need to leave and find Toothless! Then we can see what we can do about that queen.}_

 _No, Firefly. Just no. Be glad you're alive and your mind is far too chaotic and unstable for the queen to dominate it. I just don't want to go near her._

 _I will not!_

I huff and turn my tail on Firefly and he stumbles back, shocked. He steps over to Greedy, but she backs up with an alarmed squawk. Desperation takes over as he stumbles over to Rock, hand outstretched, but she ascends with her buzzing wings to the iron web above to hang upside down from it. He tries Spit and Sputter, but they hiss and flutter their wings.

In a sudden panic, Firefly casts about, frantically seeking a dragon to take him to the queen's nest, but that's the _last_ place we want to go. At least I'm not the _only_ one who's deathly afraid of her. He ends up in front of me, again, dropping to his knees with one hand stretched out as he thinks with his lips in a torrential rush of sorrow and desperation.

 _{You can't do this to me! I'm trapped here. He's trapped out there. Nothing good can come from this situation until we are reunited. Please help me, dragon. I need you to trust me to protect you from the queen. You need me as much as I need you!}_

 _No, Firefly. I can't. To fly back to the queen… I just… I can't. You know what our days used to be like? We just trained land-striders. Nobody touched us or tried to convert your people or made them attack the queen. We had a pretty good life. And then you showed up, you dangerous, deaf lunatic._

 _So you know what? You win!_

 _Just go._

 _It's been fun._

 _Don't come back._

Everyone else is already retreating to their caves. Firefly makes a desperate kneeling lunge forward to touch me, but I back up and turn to walk away. Firefly collapses forward in a crumpled heap, shuddering as he whimpers on the stone ground.

Poor thing. He'll get over it. The pain of his loss of his dragon will fade and-

OW!

A sharp pain flares up in my tail and I whirl around, full of fangs.

 _That's where I draw the line, Firefly! If you attack me then-_

Wait, it wasn't Firefly who poked my tail with a shiny claw. He's still whimpering on the ground.

It's that obnoxious, black-haired land-strider.

I growl and bear my fangs at him. It's easy to see how scared he really is, but he stands his ground and glowers at me.

 _{You're a coward, dragon!}_

Hmm, I must be really developing my ability to discern the scattered projected thoughts when land-striders think with their lips. Maybe that brief contact with Firefly really-

Hey, wait, did he just call me a _coward_?! I snap at him, but he jumps to the side and hits the tip of my snout.

 _Why always the face!_

 _{You're all cowards! You were given an opportunity to accomplish something with your miserable lives instead of festering in your own excrements, but you tuck your tail between your legs and crawl away, whimpering!}_

Firefly springs to his feet, panic and fear written all over his face. He leaps at the black-haired one to stop him, but is casually shaken off and sent sprawling to the ground.

 _{I thought you would be powerful and fierce, but I guess I was wrong. You're nothing more than a stupid, selfish, animalistic cowards. You especially, nightmarish monster! You're nothing but a disappointment. You are beneath me!}_

 _What… did he just say…?_

The land-strider huffs at me and spins around.

 _No. Oh no, you don't._

 _No you don't!_

 _Nobody calls me a coward! NOBODY!_

 _Don't turn your back on me!_

 _DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM ME!_

I leap forward to glide to slam into the ground in front of him, all alight and full of fire and fury. He grimaces and reaches for a shiny claw at his hip, but there's nothing there. Clearly, he didn't think this far ahead.

 _Yes, you should fear me, rodent. This is the part where I kill you!_

I lunge forward and wrap my teeth around his head and shoulders. He squeaks in terror.

 _You think I'm a coward, well how about now?!_ Now, _who's a coward?! Could a coward crush your-_

WHAM!

Owwwww!

I wanted to give him a moment to recognize just how dead he really is before sinking my fangs in to crush his entire torso, but something strikes the bottom of my jaw and I rear back to glare at my new assailant. Two beady eyes look up at me from a tired, wrinkled, withered form that's leaning on a stick as a third leg.

 _{They let you out sooner than I expected, but I'm glad I made it in time. He has never known caution or moderation. There are times when his brash recklessness is an indispensable asset. However, he's a thorn in the side at all other times, which is almost all the time.}_

She's… it's… I _know_ that voice! I've heard it before.

She's the dragon who's not a dragon. It's _her_! The one whose projected thoughts are so much more crisply-defined and intelligible than any other land-strider's. She's the one who has been talking to us during these past training exercises.

First, she told Spit and Sputter to pretend to be afraid of the eel so Firefly would appear to be the winner of the training exercise. From then on, she was always telling us to preserve these students and that killing them would only condemn ourselves.

She has interfered for the last time!

I roar angrily at her and lunge forward.

Ow! Aaaah!

Pain!

Suffering!

It hurts so much! What's happening?! Scale-shedding, flesh-peeling, burning, tearing, cracking, searing, boiling, head-crushing, bone-shattering agony! My wings twist with a loud pop and crumple like a leaf trampled underfoot as they burn to ash. What did she _do_ to them?! My tail! Where did it go?! Why does it feel like every part of my body is tearing itself apart?! Why can I hear nothing but my own bones cracking and my flesh sizzling?!

Water engulfs me, forcing its way down my throat. Even as I drown, it boils away as fire consumes my body. I try to roar in pain, but nothing comes out. I try to whimper in terror, but all I can do is watch myself die far too slowly.

 _I can't take it anymore! Just kill me now! The pain is too great!_

 _It's too much! I can't… It's… it's… gone. Gone! It's gone!_

 _Am I dead?_

I open my eyes to find my form curled up on the ground. Wings are intact, tail still connected, bones definitely are not shattered. My blood hasn't all boiled out of my body. Aside from a bleeding lip - from my own fangs - I am completely unharmed.

My eyes land on the interloper, the dragon who's not a dragon, but really a land-strider. She's hunched over, supported by the black-haired one who called me a coward, a worried look on his face. All around, the other dragons are recovering from a similar sort of shock as they hastily pick themselves back up. Rock is still on her back, stubby legs thrashing in the air, wings pointlessly buzzing against the ground.

The old female glares at me.

 _{Today is not my day to die, dragon, so please don't make me do that again. It hurts me as much as you. I have learned to project all sorts of pain I can recall or even imagine to preserve myself during a raid when these frail bones cannot. You just witnessed the pains shared with me by a thousand dying dragons. There's a reason your kind always avoided a particular part of this nest, even while under the control of the queen. I am that reason.}_

I take a cautious step forward and look down at her. A tickle of pain flares up - a warning - but instantly vanishes as she realizes I am not attacking her again.

 _{Can you hear me, land-strider? Why are you here? What do you want?}_

 _{By the way, I cannot hear you. However, as Firefly discovered, physical contact draws our minds closer together. If one of you are willing to touch me, I will converse with you dragons.}_

For a while, nothing happens besides a bunch of staring at each other. Finally, Nose sighs, hops forward, and looks up at her. As he coils his haunches, we feel another tickle of pain. Another warning. Nose huffs and leaps up to settle on her shoulder, fluttering his wings to steady himself as he settles down. He loosely lays his tail against her neck and looks at her.

Wait a moment! It cannot be a coincidence that she's wearing a particularly thick piece of animal hide on her shoulder, _precisely_ where that little mink dragon is perched, to protect herself from his claws as he grips onto her.

She _knew!_ She knew he would be her rider. She knew he would jump up on her left side and not her right - he always curls to the right when he relaxes. She knew that Nose would jump up on her shoulder in the first place so we could communicate with her and so placed that protective hide precisely where he would land.

 _How did she know?!_

Nose takes on the role of our spokesdragon, testing out the theory that contact with her would allow her to hear us.

 _{What makes you think you are safe from me, now, land-strider? I could tear your neck apart before you could even react.}_

The old female smiles as she gives a pat on the black-haired male's shoulder and walks further into the arena.

 _{You will gain nothing but your own doom from harming me and you know it. Look outside the iron web.}_

I suddenly notice the new company. All around us, on top of the ledge surrounding this arena, almost a hundred land-striders stand, staring down at us.

One leans on the iron web and sneaks a foot over the ledge, but the old female gives him a death glare and points her stick at him. He stumbles with a yelp, falls down into our arena, and hastily picks himself up in a daze, running in a limp as fast as he can towards the exit, cowering under the old female's glare.

I bet their fear of these supposed gods has something to do with how this old land-strider can keep them all in line. Watching her reduce us all to a writhing pile of scales without even lifting a finger might have helped, too.

She's right. We cannot deny that it is her, alone, holding them back. In reviewing my memories, almost all of them were here to watch me face off against Firefly. They don't look so intimidating, which would make sense if every capable fighter is floating towards the queen right now, leaving only the weak, inept, or injured behind. Even though we are constricted to either fight in this arena or attempt to escape through the hole Toothless had blasted in the iron web, we probably could still take them. However, even if we have dominance over them, the queen would take our minds as her own.

We cannot run.

We cannot hide.

We cannot fight.

Nose's rider gives a long-winded sigh and reaches a hand to idly pet the dragon.

 _{As I already told you. Today is not my day to die. I have a role to play that will impact everyone here. Before that, though, I should explain what I have been doing with my ability to converse with dragons.}_

We see impressions flash in rapid sequence. She stands before various dragons at different times. All controlled by the queen. All dying during a raid. Some were impaled by shiny claws, others had wings snapped at odd angles, more yet were completely beheaded, but the mind lingers without a body for a short while before fading away forever. Watching a dragon desperately project a stream of impressions as he dies is always uncomfortable. Even after the head is chopped off, the mind projects a steady stream of impressions before fading away.

It is a feeling with which we are all well-acquainted.

She is talking to each dragon as he dies, comforting him. She shows him that his death is not defeat, but liberation. In that desperate state between waking from the mind snare and realizing that death is imminent, many dragons have allowed her to touch them so they could express how glad they are to be free from the mind snare.

Greedy croons at a shared memory we all see of a dying adder, neck and torso impaled by a few long shiny claws. She recognizes this dragon as the one who laid her egg. The pattern of scars on her snout was so lovely and unique that even a land-strider could remember it. This old land-strider had one hand on the dragon, conversing with her, while several land-striders stood nearby, watching, proud of their accomplishment.

In their own eyes, the old land-strider was praising and blessing them and asking the gods to give them favor for their mighty deeds in slaying this creature. However, the truth that all dragons come to realize is that this was a release for that dragon that couldn't have come too soon. The old land-strider recognized this, too.

In fact, that dragon gave her a name. Raven. A fitting name for one who communes with the dead and dying. I have mated a couple times and have seen ravens often swarm our breeding grounds. Sometimes, a hatchling doesn't make it out of the egg or is too weak. We have no place for the weak, so they are abandoned and left for the ravens and other scavengers. They can be a pest, but they are quite flammable and they actually keep even worse pests away by eating up rotting matter that would otherwise attract them.

It was during the dying Adder's last moment alive, before her mind drifted away along with the blood soaking into the ground, that Raven learned about the queen. The dragon told of the queen's power over us, her massive size, and her cruelty to treat us as disposable entertainment. It was the last thing she projected as her mind drifted to an eternal slumber.

So that was what life was like for Raven. Aside from tending to the sick and wounded land-striders - a never-ending task, thanks to the dragon raids - she has been helping us in whatever small way she could. She comforted us by allowing us to share our pain and grief with her.

By now, we're all gathered around her - dragons and land-striders alike, though only Firefly and Zealot are bold enough to stand so close to us dragons. Smoke practically shoots out of Firefly's ears as he struggles to understand the communications to which he is deaf.

I give a derisive snort, causing Raven to snap her eyes to me.

 _{If you can do all this, Raven, why did you do nothing for me when I was first captured? I almost killed myself in my depression!}_

 _{I do enjoy living, dragon. You were quite enraged. You all were, at first, and I would accomplish nothing but my own demise. Besides, with the general mindset of all the land-striders on this island, I had very few opportunities to accomplish anything. Killing a dragon means everything around here and what could a single old, mute land-strider accomplish? Besides, I knew Firefly would come along and set things in motion in a way I never could. He has started a chain of events that will change everything. Either the queen dies today or she kills all of us. Without Firefly, victory over the queen would be impossible. With him, though, there is a glimmer of hope. He cannot act alone, though. Your actions now will determine the fate of countless dragons and land-striders.}_

 _{How can you say this? How would you know?}_

My response is a torrent of impressions and images. I see us, here, now, then a hundred different immediate futures based on our actions. Then, for each of those, a hundred more outcomes by the end of this day based on what we do.

The land-striders make it to the queen's nest. They disturb her enough to set her into a rage. She loses her grip on her dragons and breaks out of her volcanic mountain to seek retribution. All the images agree. Nothing can prevent this. This _will_ happen.

Then, they all diverge. In some, she burns them all, then flies off to gather her dragons again. In others, she simply stomps on a few before spreading her enormous wings to fly off and collect our minds. If we stay here, we fall into her mind snare. If we fly away, she will still command us. We are doomed no matter what. Nothing can save us with the exception of death.

How is this possible? How can this land-strider see that which isn't? How can she know what will be?

In answer to the questions we are all too befuddled to ask, she explains, _{You already know we land-striders can see what has never passed in front of our eyes. Some say it is just imagination - an idle wandering of the mind. Other say it is an inventive genius so that we can conceive of mechanisms that allow us to survive when the strength of our own bodies is inadequate. How else could you explain how Firefly shot down a black dragon on a dark night or how he invented a tail fin and help a dragon fly when he, himself, has always been land-bound? Maybe it's his wild imagination. Maybe the gods guided him.}_

 _Great, those invisible, all-powerful beings that supposedly exist. No wonder land-striders never make any sense._

Firefly cautiously reaches a hand up to Nose. The dragon shakes him off and cranes his neck around to look at Raven.

 _{So which is it, then? I am willing to acknowledge that you land-striders have a similar degree of intelligence as us dragons. It's not a difference in magnitude so much as a difference in type. We have infinite breadth to retain every single impression to which we have ever been exposed, while you land-striders have infinite depth to add complexity to the simple. Does this complexity arise from within or from without?}_

Raven ruffles Firefly's hair and he smiles at her. Without the ability to think with her lips, as other land-striders can, it is her only way to show her support for the desperate Firefly, who is still recovering from his mental shock of being rejected by all us dragons. She looks me in the eyes as she answers our question.

 _{Any difference between imagination from within and revelations from without escapes my notice, but I know that such a talent is especially strong in Firefly and myself. We simply have a feeling of what to do and have learned to listen to that small, quiet voice in the back of our minds that directs us. He can never explain it, but he is guided at times and he knows what to do. As for me, just as you can remember the past with perfect clarity, I can remember the future. However, where the past is certain and static, the future is a constantly shifting mystery. Sometimes, I see that which will occur or could be brought to pass. What you are seeing right now is a sample of the potential futures.}_

Ummmm, alright… Nobody even knows _how_ to respond to that, so we hold our peace as we parse through the flood of thoughts from Raven. So many of them have bad endings. The queen burns everyone on this island and reclaims our minds. The queen burns everyone, including us dragons. The queen flies off, snagging my own helpless mind along the way, and thousands of dragons escort her to some other part of the world, where she gathers thousands more.

More images. More outcomes. Death, thrall, queen wins, we lose. Rinse and repeat no matter what we do.

Wait! There! She's dead. Dead! The queen is dead! We kill her! I can't see how, but she dies in some of these futures.

I want that! I want it for myself right now!

 _Give me that future!_

 _{Tell me how we get that future where she dies! Tell me_ now _, Raven!}_

 _{You will need riders for this future, dragons. You will need to face your fears of the queen.}_

Face the queen? Can't someone else do it? Besides, how do we know we can trust Raven? Land-striders can use imagination to deceive. Could she be doing that to us right now?

 _{We have seen that you can bend your imaginations or revelations or whatever into deception. What proof do we have that you are not deceiving us?}_

Raven smiles up at Firefly and gives him a pat on the back before turning to slowly walk out of the arena, using her stick as a third leg.

 _{No proof at all. You either trust me and possibly succeed or stay here and die… or worse. There is nothing else I can do but watch and prevent the other land-striders on this island from interfering.}_

 _Well, that's not exactly reassuring._

 _Blast it all! Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?_

I strut in front of the land-strider students gathered around, inspecting them all in turn, then pause in front of Firefly. He looks at me with hope in his eyes, but I move on with a snort. I was only messing with him. He'll probably do something crazy and almost get me killed… _again_. I pass up Zealot, too. She hit me in the snout with a stone on a stick yesterday. No way I'm using _her_ as a mind snare scrambler.

Moving along, I inspect the other candidates.

 _Too pudgy._

 _Too crazy._

 _Also too crazy._

Last up is the obnoxious one who called me a coward. He's my last option, but is actually a decent specimen. I look down at him and give a long-winded sigh. He crosses his arms and pouts at the realization that I'm choosing him only because there's no better option. I suppose he'll be good… enough.

Hmm, if I'm going to accept him as a rider, he needs a name. Let's see, I've seen plenty of his behavior and tendencies during our training sessions. Most of the time, his methods are direct and crude, but more effective than one would imagine them to be, like a hawk. Dive in, strike, then run away screaming.

So, I'll call him Hawk?

No that doesn't quite fit. He's reckless, true, but cornering him can really draw out some desperate brilliance. There's a certain confidence and precision he can draw upon when he really needs it. It's like some sort of rage, but he can channel it, focus it, exercise control over the rage that affects him.

I think I shall call him Cougar. Yes, Cougar is a good name. Fierce, crude, unapologetic, and easily startled.

 _{Alright, Cougar, I know you can't hear me, but listen up. I thought about our dilemma and I came up with a solution that I honestly think works best for one of both of us.}_

I lower my head almost to Cougar's level and Firefly gives him a nudge. He reaches for me with a smug look on his face, ready to claim his prized dragon.

I snap at him, causing him to jump back with an undignified squeak.

 _Too smug. Only one of us can be so smug and we both know who that is._

Firefly rolls his eyes, places a hand on my snout, and guides Cougar's hand towards me. Cougar hesitates, fearful I'll snap at him again.

Good. _Now_ I can allow him to touch me.

 _{I can't believe I'm really doing this. Alright, Cougar, look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For Firefly. You monster.}_

As we make contact, I can feel that closer presence again, as well as that sense of infinity wrapped up in nothing. For the first time, I also notice the queen has ceased to tug on my mind. Looking back, Firefly had the same effect when he touched me earlier.

This might actually be crazy enough to work!

I need more… some sort of proof of commitment. Sure, he's trusting me with his life, but I'm trusting him with my mind! I need to know he will be loyal to me. I need to know he understands how important this is.

Firefly presses a fish into Cougar's hand and he extends it towards me. I grab the fish and flick it to the side.

 _{That's not good enough! I'm not a crippled black dragon trapped in a cove and you're not Firefly.}_

Hmm, what would communicate with him?

Ah! I know. A blood oath. It's a gesture between mates who want to commit themselves to each other. It doesn't happen often, but when a pair of dragons are so impressed with their mate's physique and breeding potential, they would offer some of their own blood to the mate. Not a lot, but enough to show the meaning behind it.

Anyone can take blood from another. I've taken the blood from many land-striders and dragons. However, to _give_ your own blood to another is a sign that cannot be ignored. Anyone can take blood, but willingly giving your own is not a small gesture.

I just hope this gesture performed between mates doesn't turn too awkward.

I try to communicate this to him, but all my growling, snarling, and snapping only confuses and frightens him in the most amusing way. Finally, out of desperation, I curl my tail around and sink my fangs in a little bit to draw some blood. Cougar looks at me like I grew a second head and became as crazy as Spit and Sputter, but I extend the tail towards him, droplets of blood dripping down the scales and spattering on the ground.

At first, Cougar just stares in confusion. Firefly is scratching his head, but Cougar finally understands the point. He wicks up some of my blood on a finger and stares at me. I stare at him. Eventually, with some growling and gesturing, I get him to lick my blood off his finger.

 _{Now you see, Cougar? I give my blood. It is given, not taken. I take from prey, but I am not your prey. I give you my blood that gives me life. Now it's your turn.}_

Somehow, his mind arrives at that conclusion despite the fact that he's deaf to me. Without a single moment of hesitation, he pulls out a small shiny claw and returns the gesture by scoring some blood out of his arm. I lick it to complete the gesture. Everyone else is looking on at us with a mixture of disgust and fascination, but I can tell Cougar understands the meaning behind this. His hum has shifted to a somber and even reverent sort of timbre.

 _{Yes, you get it, now. Blood for blood. Life for life. I will keep you safe so you can continue to protect me from the queen. Your mind and thoughts better be complicated enough to protect me or you will become tribute delivered by a dragon that cannot think for himself.}_

With this gesture complete, I grab him by his outer hide and flick him up onto my neck. He gives a panicked squeak, but manages to steady himself upon landing. Let's just hope we can accomplish something useful today and maybe even survive.


	8. Potentially Apocalyptic Significance

**A/N  
** Easter egg time. Last chapter, I took a lot of quotes from GLaDOS (A cynical AI that wants to put you through tests for the rest of your life) in the puzzle video game, Portal (both 1 and 2). If you haven't played it, go play it now. It's awesome! If you don't like video games, play it anyway. If you don't have a computer, buy one and play it. Really. And then teach Valve how to count to three.

The title is from a very inspirational song at the end of Portal, called "Still Alive", in which the power-crazed AI sings about not crying over every mistake, but just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake.

In the co-op gameplay, GLaDOS once lists various ways humans can die, but expresses her disappointment that it's just not the same with robot test subjects. This also happens to be all the ways Spite really wants to see Toothless die at the beginning of the chapter.

Other random quotes:  
"Not a fake, tragic surprise, like last time. A _real_ surprise with _tragic_ consequences."  
"Maybe you could settle for that and we'll just call it a day."  
"You know what my days used to be like? I just tested. Nobody murdered me, or put me in a potato, or fed me to birds. I had a pretty good life... and then _you_ showed up, you dangerous, mute lunatic. So you know what? _You win_. _Just go_. It's been fun. Don't come back."  
"I thought about our dilemma, and I came up with a solution that I honestly think works out best for one of both of us."  
"Okay. Look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster."

* * *

 **Circumstances of Potentially Apocalyptic Significance**

Wind under my wings!

Is there anything more glorious in this entire world? Is there any feeling more magnificent? Is there any single act that can inspire such sheer joy than to feel the thermals on the tips of my wings and to become one with the wind?

Absolutely not!

It's almost enough to make me forget that I'm flying right back to the very demonic queen that has controlled me since the day I first cracked my egg. It's almost enough to forget about this vine wrapped around my neck. It's almost enough to ignore the unfamiliar weight on the back of my neck, tugging on said vine with every beat of my wings.

Almost.

I let out an irritated snarl and crane my head around to glare at my rider, but, well, I can't. He's _on_ my neck, so I can't quite see him. The adder helpfully projects her sight.

The look on Cougar's face only confirms the hum I can hear. He gleefully looks up and down the length of my body and tail, across the expanse of my wings, soaking in the sheer majesty of my form. He is the very first land-strider to ride on my back instead of in my claws where I have, in times past, forced land-striders to assume the tribute escort submission position on my way back from a raid. His giddy excitement is actually enough to shift my snarling into a happy trill.

Hands slap against the scales of my neck as he kicks his feet and crows with uncontrolled excitement. This, of course, causes him to lose balance and tug hard on the vine around my neck to straighten himself again. It doesn't hurt, but it's just so… there!

I snap my head back to whack his face, prompting him to groan and bleat an apology for all his tugging and shifting.

I have to give Cougar credit where due, though. Before we took off, when Firefly was instructing the riders to secure some vines around our necks so they would have something to hold onto, mine actually showed some insight and thoughtful analysis. After watching Spit and Sputter nearly eat their riders - the crazy twin land-striders - Cougar decided on a different tactic.

Naturally, we associate vines with subjugation, malice, binding our legs and wings, getting knocked out of the sky, and all sorts of unpleasant things. Before even approaching me with any restraints, he first tied them around _himself_. With one end secured around his waist, he placed the other end between my rows of teeth. It only took an instant to realize what he was doing and, to be honest, it stunned me. He was giving me control over him, willingly… like some sort of variation of the blood oath.

He literally gave me the power to exert some degree of control over him. I could take it or leave it.

Not one to let an opportunity go by, I clamped down on the vine and jerked him around a bit, but I can certainly appreciate the intent behind this gesture. By the egg that hatched me, I surprised even myself when I ducked and leaned this way or that to assist him in securing the vine around my neck. Following Cougar's example - with Firefly staring on in slack-jawed surprise - the others had followed his lead.

I can understand the necessity of this vine, of course. If I lose my mind snare scrambler - I mean rider - then I would be in big trouble. If this thing around my neck will help him stay in contact with me, then I'll gladly endure. Well, maybe not _gladly_. I'll survive.

Off to the side, Greedy squawks out her joy as a gust of wind playfully tugs at her wings, prompting some gleeful swaying and swooping. Well, I suppose her name isn't Greedy, anymore. When I accepted Cougar as my rider, she accepted Zealot as hers. Ever since she first chased that land-strider around the wooden maze - the most fun she's ever had in her life - she had taken a liking towards her. It took a while for Zealot to name her dragon as she displayed a rare moment of indecision and initially resorted to just calling her dragon by her species of Deadly Adder.

It wasn't until a ways into our flight to the queen's nest that she came up with a name when the adder veered off to the side to play in some very turbulent gusts underneath a bank of dark storm clouds. Apparently, land-striders don't normally enjoy flying upside-down and sideways while twirling around. Zealot was quite terrified at first, but quickly learned to bob and weave with the movements and trust her dragon.

Once Zealot caught her breath, she knew what to name her dragon.

Storm Flier approved her new name.

Rock was all too eager to allow the pudgy land-strider on her back. Again, surprise surprise, the land-striders had to give her a new name. Her rider settled on the name of Meat Lug and, despite all our jeering to name her rider Meat in retribution, so that Meat Lug can lug Meat around, she's taking her time in coming up with a suitable name for him.

Fortunately, Meatlug is still as strong a flier as the day she was captured. Her stubby legs are a joke, so her wings never lacked in exercise as they were her main way of moving around. She could even buzz those stubby wings to hover inside her cave to maintain her strength during her extended captivity. The high load capacity that is a trait of her species is proving to be very critical with her choice of rider. Most land-striders emerge from training terribly undernourished, but her rider beat the odds and somehow managed to pack on a few stones.

The fact that Meatlug is least affected by gusts of wind worked in favor of her rider, who is easily the single most timid land-strider in existence. For the other riders, the initial fear of flying quickly transition into sheer exhilaration, but the pudgy one felt nothing other than sheer terror. Were he on the back of any other dragon that may lurch up or down with the changing gusts of wind, he might have fainted and fallen into the sea below.

When the twin land-striders ended up with the twin heads of their dragon, which was formerly named Spit and Sputter, they didn't hesitate for even a moment in coming up with new names. It was only fitting to name the heads Barf and Belch after their initial reaction to having those two land-striders pressing themselves against the dragon's snouts.

True to form of insanity, in a stroke of sheer draconic "genius", the dragon heads also named their _riders_ Barf and Belch. So now we have Barf and Belch riding Barf and Belch and everybody wants to avoid talking to them.

Even more than before.

Brilliant, right?

And what name does my rider give me? It didn't just roll off the top of his head. Oh no, he put a _lot_ of thought into this. He squinted and stared and paced around, examining, thinking deeply about the best way to accurately describe me. I named him after a fierce creature and what imagery does my Cougar settle on to represent me?

Fiery Fury?

Fanged Death?

Immolation?

Inferno?

Desolation?

Terribly Deadly and Unstoppable Monster That Burns and Kills as He Pleases?

All of those would have been wonderful! Especially that last one! Instead, he named me… Hook Fang.

Hook… Fang!

Really… Hook Fang?! Even Spite was infinitely better! I was in such shock and disbelief that it took me a few iterations of pretending I didn't recognize my name for Cougar to confirm that, yes, he really _did_ name me after the curviness of my fangs.

Why don't I just give my rider a _new_ name? Something equally asinine and mundane like… I dunno! Squint Eyes or Black Hair or Flammable Flesh - that last one was inspired by a certain dragon named Nose. Alright, I'll admit, us dragons aren't that good at coming up with interesting names.

Still, I thought land-striders were supposed to be clever and inventive!

Honestly!

I suppose I'll stick to Cougar. Life is confusing enough as is and I can just pretend that no other dragon has fangs as hooked as mine.

At first, after our riders all mounted up, Firefly was left without a dragon. He tried to climb up on me, but there's no way I'd allow that crazy trouble-maker on _my_ back. He'll probably accidentally find a way to set me on fire or something like that or come up with some new, brilliant way to attack an enemy and end up poking out my eyes.

It wasn't until Zealot slid off her dragon and refused to cooperate unless Storm Flier carried them both that Firefly found a dragon to ride. With both riders on her back, Storm Flier simply glared at me, so I replied by sticking out my tongue. It's not like her extra rider weighs that much anyway.

At least that old female land-strider, Raven, didn't disappoint. True to her word, she was able to keep all those land-striders away from us as we ate up the fish we were offered before flying off.

I suppose, come to think about it, land-striders are more easily controlled than us dragons. It takes some demonic queen with the power to literally dominate our minds to make us do her will. Raven, though? Ha! The mute land-strider just scribbled some shapes in the dirt that someone was able to interpret.

Apparently, she threatened the wrath of their invisible gods if anyone dared to touch us. In theory, I suppose any land-strider could be their queen with such tactics. They may make great mind snare scramblers, but their minds are as unstable as the wind currents during a storm.

Speaking of which, I can feel the gentle updrafts that ride the leading edge of a storm front. In the past, such an updraft was a blessing that helped tired and injured dragons make it back to the nest to feed the queen whatever food they acquired before resting.

Now, though… it never really hit me so forcefully until this moment. We're actually flying back to the queen's nest! This very demon has humiliated me for my whole life and I'm flying back to her. Why? Because some old land-strider who can remember the future told us to trust that traitorous black dragon and his crazy pet.

Cougar gives me a reassuring slap and rub along my neck in response to all my squirming.

 _Time to focus, Spite- I mean, Hookfang. It's go time!_

I allow the thermal to carry me as I stretch my wings until the joints crackle and pop. Cougar giggles and rubs my neck affectionately. It sure is nice to finally meet someone who can appreciate true power when he sees it.

Feeling more relaxed, I silently glide through the fog as my rider stares around, slack-jawed. Somehow, whether by the queen's power or some natural characteristics of this area, a dense bank of fog perpetually surrounds her nest. Combined with all the sharp rocks just below the water and sea stacks all around, land-striders have never found it.

There are paths that they could follow, in theory, where the water is deep. If what Raven said is true, the queen has already conquered Toothless' mind and he was helpless to thrash this way or that in a vain attempt to fly to the queen's nest. The land-striders could simply observe which way the dragon leans and navigate accordingly. Clever fools.

I sense something ahead just before flying into some large, wooden shape hidden in the fog. It's one of those wooden sea vessels that land-striders use, stood up on its nose and crammed against a sea stack. I don't recall _that_ being here. It must be a new addition.

My rider gives a startled gasp and a squeak of warning, but I'm already tilting my wings to trade speed for altitude and even casually push off the vessel with my talons. To my immense satisfaction, it dislodges itself from its perch and tumbles into the water with a loud splash.

Well, all peaceful so far. Maybe we can make it to the nest without any opposition-

 _WOAH!_

A nightmarish monster gives an alarmed shriek and lurches to the side to barely avoid a head-on collision.

 _I had to say it! I had to!_

I snap my left wing in to dodge a deadly adder shooting past us and lurch up to dodge a two-headed dragon. A quick flip and I push off the belly of a rhinoceros dragon with green carapace plates, a thick tail, stout legs, and a horned head designed for ramming. If a dragon that size flew right into me, I don't think I'd be getting up anytime soon.

All of us are frantically taking evasive maneuvers, projecting proximity alerts to all dragons nearby. Hundreds of them frantically zip past us in a blind rush. They're not hostile, but just trying to put as much space between themselves and whatever's behind them. In fact, in their blind hurry, many end up slapping into each other or sea stacks to fall to the water in a daze. The cluttered surge of projected panic from all of them is as dense and chaotic as the swarming mass of wings.

 _{Fly, you fools! Away from the queen!}_

 _{Who are these dragons flying_ towards _the queen? Why do they have land-striders on their backs?!}_

 _{I feel like I just woke up from a dream I was in ever since I cracked my egg.}_

 _{I don't want to go back!}_

 _{Why am I remembering things I've never seen before?}_

 _{This cannot be real!}_

 _{These memories cannot be true!_

 _{The tribute is a lie!}_

Oh, the many wonderful joys of waking from the mind-snare. The confusion, the anxiety, the shame, the countless memories of groveling for the queen and bringing back tribute for her while we ourselves starve. Poor things. Hopefully, they won't interfere with us as they go through their various stages of madness and grief. They're useless to us at the moment. In fact, they're downright insane. Suddenly realizing your entire past was the most humiliating exercise in futility any dragon could possibly achieve can do that.

Wait a moment. How _did_ they get free from the mind snare? Granted, proximity to a large number of land-striders weakens the queen's grip on our minds. That's why she pulls us back to her nest after a certain duration in a raid no matter how much or little food we've collected for her. There would be many land-striders on her island, but not as many as most islands we raid. That alone can't explain it, especially right _at_ the queen's nest where her influence is strongest.

So, then, what extra push was provided to disrupt the queen's hold on their minds?

Regardless, they won't make it far if what Raven said is true. The many land-striders at the queen's nest may have disrupted her hold on them, but her reach is great and killing all those land-striders wouldn't take her long at all… unless _something_ stops her.

With that obstacle past, we all take a moment to coast and collect our wits and project our sight to inspect the riders on our backs. In all that frantic dodging, my rider lost his grip on that vine around my neck and I had to catch him in my talons. Already, without him on my back, I can feel the Queen niggling at the back of my mind. She doesn't even know we're here, but just her passive hum is like something above and beyond what any other dragon can produce.

I hastily pump my wings hard to ascend and roll over, tossing my rider up while inverted so he falls on top of me as I right myself. He squeals and whines at the harsh treatment, but we're safe for now. Again, I can feel him pushing the queen out with all his chaos and complexity in his mind without even realizing what he's doing.

Just below and off to the side, the crazy twin riders cheer at our aerial acrobatics and wiggle around in an attempt to goad Barf and Belch into performing the same stunt I just did. Fortunately, the dragon knows better and the two heads take turns delivering some reprimanding whacks to their rambunctious riders.

Mind snare aside, those riders should know better. Are they really so ignorant of even the most rudimentary principles of flight? With the extra weight of two heads, a broad torso, and even four legs on top of that - not to mention shorter wings and slender tails - the dragon isn't exactly graceful in the air. They're really good at maintaining a high speed with their streamlined wings and their flight is more stable in turbulent winds, but their rate of climb and maneuverability suffers as a result.

Eventually, the riders settle down. Up ahead, I can see the volcanic mountain come into view through the fog. The plain, rocky surface is just as unassuming as I remember. One new feature, though, is a massive column of black smoke lazily drifting up into the air from just off the shoreline.

As we drift around the mountain, more of the pebbled beach comes into view where I can see smoke billowing up from those wooden land-strider vessels engulfed in flames. A large portion of the beach is littered with bits and pieces of what was formerly the contraptions land-striders used to hurl boulders through the air. Many land-striders are scattered around, all running around with equal parts chaos and coordination, trying to find someplace safe to hide.

I let my eyes wander farther up the beach.

It's _her_.

The queen.

She really is out of her mountain.

She _is_ a mountain.

She's _huge!_

Just… enormous!

Her neck alone is so thick I couldn't even wrap my wings around it! Until now, I've only seen her massive maw through the orange mist where she dwells in the bottom of the volcano. Now that she's out and angry, this is my first time seeing her body. From the four powerful legs that could crush any dragon, ending in nasty claws that could impale any dragon clean through, to the broad tail that ends in a lump of spikes that's easily more massive than all of us put together, she looks even more menacing than I could have ever imagined.

Thick, sea-green scales cover her entire body, broken up by a lattice of sharp nubs. Her spine is lined with several rows of spikes and her head is crowned by a jagged, bony knob. Contact with any part of her is sure to be fatal.

Collectively, our hearts drop at the sight. We falter in our flying and end up hovering in the air, too scared to go onward, but not willing to flee.

No, I'm better than this! I'm not scared… even though there is no way I can harm her… and her fire is so nasty that even my scales cannot protect me… and she'll probably kill us because she's incredibly powerful and I have no plan...

No! I am _not_ scared! I advance towards the queen, but pull to a stop when I realize nobody is following me. I turn on them and growl to encourage them on. A desperate look creeps over Firefly's face. He half-rises from his perch on Storm Flier's back and looks at me, judging his chances of jumping from her to me without falling to his death. I take a flap away and ascend a bit to remove that temptation.

I _still_ don't want him on _my_ back!

Cougar looks at the queen with a sneer, determination pouring out of him. He either has no clue just how completely dead we all are or he doesn't care. Some of that brazen determination seeps in between my own scales and I would be lying to say I don't appreciate it.

I give a rumbling bark to get the other dragons' attention.

 _{Enough cowardice, dragons. We have come this far, let's see it through. I know it's strange having a land-strider on your back, but we and they are joined by a common interest: revenge! You like revenge, right?_ Everybody _likes revenge! Well, let's go_ get _some!_

Meatlug rises up to my level, emitting something between growling in anger at the queen and whimpering in fear. Her rider soothingly strokes her neck as he stifles his own whimpers.

 _{I want to see her destroyed just as much as you do, Hookfang, but I'm not going to lie to you. The odds are a million to one, and that's with some generous rounding.}_

The twin-headed dragon gathers its wings and shoots off towards the queen.

 _{Enough stalling! If we're going to burn, let's at least burn with some dignity!}_

 _{Burning dragons! He said what we're all_ thinking _!}_

We all chase after them, preparing to attack the queen. Our fire will not really hurt her, but at least we can distract her. From there… I have no clue. Drop Firefly on Toothless, maybe grab some land-striders as spare mind snare scramblers and try to find somewhere safe for the moment.

 _{FOOLISH LAND-STRIDERS! LITTLE INSECTS! COME TO FIGHT, COME TO DIE. TIME TO BURN!}_

That would definitely be the queen, but who's she talking to? Our riders?

No. Past her head, I can see the Beast and Stick-leg facing off against her. She glares down at them and starts to draw in a deep breath of air in much the same way a dragon would roast ants just for fun. They don't stand the slightest chance, so what are they doing? Committing suicide? Hoping their deaths would distract the queen long enough for some of the other land-striders to make it somewhere safe?

Barf and Belch dive in fast to the base of the queen's head, releasing a dense cloud of explosive gas. Their claws skitter across the scales as they spray a thick fog just under the bony knob that extends past the back of her head. The rest of us gather our fire and let it all out as soon as the twin-headed dragon flies off to safety. My glob of sticky fire, Stormfly's white-hot shards, and Meatlug's molten ball of lava all seem to blend into one ball of fire that streaks into the gas. The resulting explosion violently rocks the queen's head forward with that bony knob acting as a wing against her head.

The queen turns, land-strider prey forgotten, and roars at us as we fly around her. After Meatlug's rider prattles off something about the queen's six eyes and her massive nostrils and the truly inspired advice to avoid letting her eat us, Firefly hastily gives instructions to our riders.

 _{WHAT IS THIS? MORE TRIBUTE FOR ME? I'VE ALREADY EATEN SEVERAL LAND-STRIDERS, BUT I'LL HAPPILY TAKE THE ONES YOU HAVE WITH YOU. I THINK I'LL EAT YOU, TOO, LITTLE INSECTS. COME AND FEED YOUR QUEEN!}_

Nope! Not listening! I can hear her and can't shut her out, but Cougar's presence on my back is really working. She stills and all six of her eyes narrow in concentration as she tugs hard on our minds, but I can resist it. Her influence is so gentle I can override it!

Off to the side, Stormfly gives a squawk and takes off for the burning vessels along the coast.

 _{I'm taking Firefly to Toothless. Firefly says you should all distract the queen. Insult her. Mock her. Make her mad.}_

Wait, _that_ is the plan?!

Just… mock her?!

Well of course! What better way to take down an immensely powerful mind-controlling demon than to engage in some petty banter! Maybe we'll make her so mad she'll forget to breathe! Raven claimed that Firefly is gifted with a serendipitous nature and his grand plan is to… insult the queen?! By now, I really should know better than to expect _anything_ from Firefly to make any sense at all. I am a crow. Caw caw!

Off towards the shoreline, Stormfly dips down so Firefly can jump down to a burning vessel, next to Toothless. Only a day ago, That dragon was running and flying and fighting, but now he's shackled on one of those burning vessels, helpless, his mind completely at the queen's mercy.

How far the mighty have fallen. To think that I, of all dragons, have been relegated to distracting the queen so Firefly can free his dragon. Oh, the sacrifices I make to save the world!

By now, the queen is focused on us. Well, _trying_ to focus on us as we frantically flock around her, dodging plumes of fire and her massive fangs. I may as well try Firefly's _brilliant_ plan, so I dig deep and bring forth the most foul, hideous, and diabolical insults I can conjure.

 _{You, queen, are bad. You're evil and I don't like you. Also, you look ugly!}_

 _Alright, I'll admit that was pathetic. It sounded a lot better in my head_ before _I projected it._

 _{WHO ARE YOU TO SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT, LITTLE WORM?! I AM YOUR QUEEN! I AM YOUR MASTER! YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A LITTLE INSECT CARRYING AN EVEN SMALLER INSECT ON YOUR BACK. YOU THINK THE LAND-STRIDERS WANT TO HELP YOU? THAT'S A JOKE! THEY ARE ALWAYS BUSY TRAPPING AND KILLING DRAGONS WHEN THEY'RE NOT TOO OCCUPIED KILLING EACH OTHER. I BRING ORDER TO THIS WORLD AND REMIND THEM HOW INSIGNIFICANT THEY ARE. YOU WILL NEVER BE SEEN IN THEIR EYES AS ANYTHING OTHER THAN A MEANS TO AN END.}_

 _{You may be right or you may be wrong, but at least it is a choice I make on my own behalf. You will never control me again and that scares you! I can feel it! I am a free dragon and you are an overgrown leech!}_

 _Ah! Yes! There we go. I'm getting better at this whole mocking thing._

The queen inhales to shoot out a large puff of fire, but I flare my wings and pull back to safety behind her head. She still lets out her fire, but shifts towards Barf and Belch and they frantically veer to the side and twist themselves to protect their riders. Even as fireproof as their scales are, the nasty, greasy inferno can still burn them. They just barely graze the wisps at the edge of the fire and no lasting damage is done, but it's enough to make them shriek in pain. The important thing is that their necks protected the riders from the majority of the heat. If the riders die, I don't even want to _think_ about what would happen to the dragon.

 _{WHAT INSECT FEIGNS JUDGEMENT ON ME? HAVE YOU EVER STOPPED TO CONSIDER WHY I DOMINATE YOUR MIND AND MAKE YOU RAID THE LAND-STRIDERS? YOU EVER CONSIDERED THAT MAYBE I DID THIS TO GIVE THE ENDLESS DAYS OF YOUR POINTLESS EXISTENCE SOME STRUCTURE AND MEANING?}_

 _What?!_

 _{Foul demon! I'll kill you!}_

I launch at the queen's head, claws outstretched and ready to tear those big, fat eyes out of their sockets. Cougar grabs the vine around my neck and leans hard to the left. I roar in angry surprise as I lurch and flutter to regain control and only now notice that the queen has raised her head up much faster than I anticipated. The wind from her teeth snapping shut just behind my tail makes it very clear just how dead I would be if Cougar hadn't done that.

The twin riders spew out some most creative and colorful insults at the queen to gain her attention and their dragon acts as a means to amplify their projected thoughts. A lot of it just rolls over my head, but I can pick up something about pity for the creature that brought her into this world. They're so much better than me at insulting and mocking, so I just fly around her head as our riders continue to taunt her.

Cougar's best attempt at instigating anger, though, catches my attention for a moment.

 _{This statement is false!}_

Hmmm. True… although… true.

 _{Cougar, that's not how you make her mad! Try something other than a silly paradox!}_

Meatlug and I end up on either side of the queen's head. She glares at us as our riders make the most annoying, obnoxiously loud, spine-grating percussive sounds by whacking their round carapace with their shiny claw and stone on a stick over and over again.

It's a self-defense technique we've trained into them over the past several generations as it can really make a raiding dragon dizzy and throw off his aim. It's definitely affecting the queen, but I am not immune to such a cacophony, so I growl at my rider.

 _{Will you stop that already?! You're giving me a headache!}_

Meatlug isn't doing any better. Our riders didn't exactly think this one through all the way. I start to tilt and try to correct, but that only makes things worse and I end up slamming against the queen's side. In a daze, I flip over and fall to the ground, but manage to frantically flare my wings to pull off a hard landing. Pain shoots up my leg on impact, but I'm still intact.

On the rocky beach between the queen's forelegs is probably a terrible spot to rest, though. I better scramble out of here before she crushes me and my… rider…

Cougar!

Oh no! Where is he?! He's not on my back! Stormfly projects a glimpse from her aerial vantage of Cougar perched on the queen's head, smashing her eyes with a stone on a stick.

This is bad! This is very, very bad! Without my rider, the queen is pressing right into my mind. I can feel her anger and hatred coursing through me like a headache even worse than all that banging up there.

An idea comes to mind when she stumbles to the side from whatever is going on up above and I make a run for it.

I can't take any risks! I can't go back to her mind snare! I _will not_ allow it! I'd rather die! If I can just get her to step on me before I lose control-

My wings splay out as I flop down on my belly. No! This is not good! I can feel her bending my mind to fit her will. It's nowhere near as uncomfortable as I would imagine it _should_ feel to have my mind forcefully seized and twisted by the cruel, malignant, evil, misunderstood, kind, sincere, merciful, loving, benevolent, magnificent queen who gives meaning to my life and only wants to help others.

 _{WHAT HAVE WE HERE? A LITTLE DRAGON, TIRED AND LOST. A LITTLE MOTH SEARCHING FOR THE LIGHT. DON'T YOU WORRY, POOR, LITTLE THING. YOU ARE SAFE HERE WITH ME. I WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU. YOU ARE FREE NOW AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS.}_

Free? I think I was free before, wasn't I? I was definitely in control of myself before… before I ended up here…

 _How did I get here, anyway?_

I remember there was a raid. There were many land-striders surrounding me and I bit off more than I could chew. They shot down the black dragon and he died, somehow. Oh, yes, now I remember! He actually landed somewhere near me and was all twisted up in those vines the evil land-striders like to use. They hacked at his stout neck over and over again and mounted his head on a stick like the savage beasts they are. Then they hit me in the face with a stone on a stick and then… somehow I ended up here.

The land-striders must have done something to me. They snared my mind and tried to control me. Filthy animals! I'm ashamed to admit they actually succeeded and I would have been helpless to serve them in an endless cycle of groveling, but the queen saved me.

She's right! I'm free! It feels so wonderful to finally be free!

All along, she _never_ left me!

 _{Yes! Thank you, my queen! My master! You are greater than all the dragons in the world by an immeasurable degree! I am truly unworthy of your kindness!}_

 _{RIGHT YOU ARE. YOU DESERVE NOTHING, BUT IF I AM TO ALLOW YOU TO LIVE TO SEE TOMORROW, I REQUIRE TRIBUTE.}_

Yes! Yes! An opportunity to serve my queen! Oh, life just cannot get any better! I'll do _anything_ for her! Anything! She is so kind to give me some meaning and purpose to my otherwise pointless existence!

 _{I would fly to the ends of the world and die a thousand deaths for you, my queen. What small service can this pathetic worm do for you?}_

 _{I HAVE A MOST ANNOYING INSECT ON MY HEAD, BITING AT MY EYES, BUT THAT CAN WAIT. FIRST, THERE SHOULD BE A BOULDER DRAGON AND A LAND-STRIDER ON THE GROUND WITH YOU.}_

I look over and see that she's right.

 _Of course she's right. She's the queen!_

The boulder dragon is on her back and one of her wings appears to be injured. She frantically claws around to right herself and a nearby pudgy land-strider jumps onto her back, taking advantage of the daze she's in. The queen is trying to step on them, but that insect biting her eyes is making things difficult.

 _{KILL THAT PUDGY LAND-STRIDER! DO NOT TAKE HIM ALIVE. I DO NOT CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO THE DRAGON, BUT THE LAND-STRIDER MUST DIE NOW!}_

As I turn to face the boulder dragon, a grunt of pain is torn out from the motion. Why my leg hurts so much is anyone's guess. I bet some evil land-strider shot me out of the sky with those vine and stone contraptions. Yes, that's it! Insipid animals! Feral beasts! I'll have to kill them all later.

The boulder dragon growls with uncertainty, confusion in her emotional hum shifting to fear. She's probably saying something, but I'm blocking out everyone except the queen. I have no clue why this dragon appears to be protecting that land-strider on her back. It is common knowledge that land-striders are food for the queen, not pets to be kept safe. That thing must have done something to her mind. Yes, that's it. He must have snared her mind.

I bare my fangs and a roar rips out of my throat.

 _{Don't worry, boulder dragon! I'll save you!}_

I gather my haunches under me and spring at them. The boulder dragon hops back, but with momentum on my side, I leap again and snag her with the claws on my wings to send us both crashing back to the ground. As I get back up from our tumble, I notice the land-strider desperately trying to keep a hand on the dragon's head.

That must be how he's doing it! He needs physical contact to control her. How a stupid land-strider can control a dragon is beyond me, but that doesn't matter. I need to either pluck that thing off her back or somehow separate the two.

I coil up again and leap at the land-strider, but the boulder dragon flips upright at the last moment and intercepts me. As we collide, I wrap my wings around her, trying to shove her out of the way.

 _Alright, this has gone far enough! No more Mr. nice dragon!_

It's not her fault, but certain things must be done. Even before we fall back to the ground again, I wrap my fangs around her left foreleg and bite down hard. She roars in pain, but any pleas for mercy fall on deaf ears. The queen's desires always come first, so I twist around to fling the boulder dragon to the side, depositing the land-strider in the process. She lands on her back and scrabbles around to stop me, but can't make much progress with the injured leg and wing.

 _Now it's just you and me, little land-strider. Little pest. Little devil!_

I take a deep inhale to roast him alive, but a searing pain shoots through my right leg, causing me to choke and splutter on my fuel. Looking back, I can see a few quills from an adder lodged in my flank. The dragon that must have attacked me screeches in anger as she flies overhead. Already, the venom is seeping in deeper as that entire side of my body seems to melt away.

 _{DO NOT WORRY LITTLE DRAGON. I WILL KEEP YOU SAFE. THIS ADDER ALSO HAS BEEN ENSLAVED BY A LAND-STRIDER ON HER BACK. I WILL KILL THEM IF YOU KILL THAT PUDGY LAND-STRIDER DOWN THERE.}_

Oh merciful queen! She is so kind to me! To think that I have such an honor to stop a sudden coup for my beloved queen! Is there anything else in the world that can fill me with such joy and fulfilment than to serve my queen?

Taking advantage of the moment of distraction, the queen inhales deeply. She is so clever! snapping that dragon out of the air has proven to be difficult, but the adder is doomed for sure. She desperately flaps her wings in a feeble attempt to escape, but the current of air as the queen inhales is drawing her inexorably closer to the awaiting maw.

From somewhere above, a high-pitched shriek builds up. I know that sound. It's the black dragon. I thought he died, though. Yes, he definitely died! How is he alive? What is he shooting at? The queen doesn't need help with that adder.

A purple fireball shoots out and explodes with concussive force against the side of the queen's head, causing her to roar in pain and stumble to the side.

 _Curse the creature that laid this black dragon's egg! He's ruining everything!_

No matter, I still have this land-strider to take care of. I leap towards him, but my right leg doesn't feel like cooperating and I end up flopping to the ground. Fortunately, the land-strider doesn't run, but crawls away on his back, completely overtaken by terror. Gathering my good left leg and wing underneath, I pounce and land my wing on top of him, pinning him to the ground, and gather some fuel in my throat.

 _{Time to burn, pudgy pest!}_

KABOOM!

Some massive explosion above knocks me flat on the ground over the land-strider as I choke on my fuel… again.

 _Oh what is it now?!_

I whip my head around just as a two-headed dragon slams into my side. This dragon also has a land-strider leech on its back. Two, in fact!

Off to the side, the boulder dragon gives a roar and buzzes her wings to charge in. This time, though, I can tell she's on my side. She's finally seen the light and is helping the queen. I just had to remove that stupid land-strider from her back all along.

 _{I'm coming to help, nightmarish monster!}_

She slams into the two-headed dragon and its two riders fly off to land a couple wingspans away. They quickly pick themselves up and take a faltering limp, desperate to reclaim their enslaved dragon, but rightfully fearful of me.

With that two-headed dragon occupied, I turn once again to my intended prey. I try to snap down on him, but he leaps away with a speed that doesn't seem fitting for a creature of his… _generous... ness._ However, I do manage to snag a claw of my wing in his leg, allowing me to pull him back as I push forward toward his head. Blood spurts out as I take in a quick breath and allow only a little fuel to collect in my throat. No more big, grandiose land-strider flambe. I've learned my lesson by now. He'll get a more painful death, but it will be delivered more quickly.

Something hard smacks into my snout, knocking my head to the side and causing me to choke on my fuel.

Again!

 _You have got to be_ kidding _me! How many enthralled dragons do I need to fight at once to kill_ one _stupid land-strider?!_

Before I can even snap at the new interloper - not a dragon, actually, but a black-haired land-strider - he leaps past my head and latches onto my neck. He's not doing any damage, but just clings like a leech.

 _Oh, big mistake, little pest._

 _{CEASE! STOP NOW!}_

That's not the queen, but the projected thought has a similar sort of force to it. I try to block it out, but he keeps roaring at me to stop.

Wait a moment, that's not just _any_ land-strider. That's my rider.

It's Cougar!

What's he doing wrapped around my neck like that? And why are Meatlug and Barf and Belch suddenly growling and baring their fangs at me and…

Oh.

The mind snare.

They are separated from their riders.

The queen.

 _Foul demon! Manipulative fiend!_

Cougar holds out his arm to show me a scabbed over cut where he had drawn blood for me. He came back! He really did understand the blood oath! I whip my tail around to show him where I bit through the scales and hide and a feral grin spreads across his face. He gives a whoop as he swings onto my back and then tugs and urgently points to the pudgy land-strider that Meatlug _still_ hasn't named, yet.

 _Yes! Good idea, Cougar. Meatlug needs her rider._

Said dragon, now under the queen's mind snare, tries to buzz her wings to shoot at me, but can only manage an awkward hop. She lets out a glob of molten lava, but Stormfly's venom is already dissipating and I dodge to the side and jump to land right in front of the pudgy one. He's back to whimpering in fear again - and I can't really blame him with blood pouring out of a wound from my own claw - but Cougar slaps some sense into him and hauls him up just as Meatlug comes shooting towards us, fury causing her to ignore all pain.

We manage to intercept and hold her down, but it's a bit of a struggle now that I'm trying not to harm her. I blow fire and smoke into her face to limit her options to lash out at me. It'll sting for sure, but won't do any real damage. A moment after her rider touches her head, the crazed look softens from her eyes and she relaxes under my talons. Her projected thoughts are a confused mess of relief and betrayal.

 _{What were you thinking, Hookfang?! You bit my leg and burned my face! That really hurt! Also, what did you_ do _to my rider?!}_

 _Oops._

 _{Yeah, sorry about that, Meatlug. I'm sure your rider is big enough he can afford to lose some blood before passing out, but how about we avoid getting squished by the queen for the moment? Also, Barf and Belch have been separated from their dragon and we both know what that means.}_

 _{If we survive today, I'm going to make that dragon give their riders new names! Using the same name for both dragon and rider is giving me a headache and the day isn't even over, yet!}_

 _{Tell me about it.}_

 _{FLY AWAY, LITTLE DRAGON! THOSE TWO ARE CONTROLLED BY THE LAND-STRIDERS. DON'T LET THEM TOUCH YOU!}_

The two-headed dragon spreads its wings to fly, but I'm faster and pounce on its back. Their necks twist to snap at me, but Meatlug joins me and we both pin the dragon and its two heads to the ground while its riders join us to free it from the queen's mind snare. After a moment, Barf and Belch regain their minds and we let them up.

A shadow passes over us and I give a panicked roar as we all scramble to avoid a particularly enrage queen that is trying to step on us. It's not a pretty sight, but all of us manage to scurry out from under her despite our injuries.

We're not safe, yet. The queen turns to glare at us as she takes a deep inhale to prepare to incinerate us and our delicate, flammable riders. There's no shelter nearby and we're all toast without our riders, so the three of us huddle over them and prepare to burn to death. Our riders are still just as dead as we are since the fire and smoke will either scorch their lungs or suffocate them, but at least we won't fall back into the mind snare again. That, alone, is a victory in my eyes.

 _{Well, this is the part where she kills us.}_

 _{THIS IS THE PART WHERE I KILL YOU. TIME TO BURN, LITTLE INSECTS!}_

Just before roasting us all, a high-pitched shriek sounds out and a purple fireball explodes on the side of the queen's neck. I can feel the tremors from the blast through the ground as the queen flops over to the side.

She recovers, full of anger and the lust for retribution, spreads her massive wings, and leaps up into the air with surprising speed, chasing after Toothless and Firefly.

 _{COME HERE LITTLE DRAGON! LITTLE MOTH! I WILL KILL YOU!}_

Toothless snaps his head to the side to cast a measured look at the queen.

 _{I'd rather not. I think I'll stick with my rider who loves me. I've had enough of your hatred and derision. You are a fool if you think anybody would want to be your slave.}_

 _{YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT, LITTLE WORM! CRIPPLED INSECT! SLAVE TO A WORTHLESS LAND-STRIDER! EVER WONDER WHY I HATE YOU SO MUCH? I'M BRILLIANT. I'M NOT BRAGGING; IT'S AN OBJECTIVE FACT. I'M THE MOST MASSIVE COLLECTION OF WISDOM THAT'S EVER EXISTED. AND I_ HATE _YOU! IT CAN'T BE FOR NO REASON. YOU_ MUST _DESERVE IT!}_

Toothless snorts as he suddenly veers to the side to avoid a snap of the queen's teeth.

 _{And, yet, for how brilliant you claim to be, you stumble at the plan laid out by a few land-strider hatchlings. Catch me if you can you flying slug!}_

The queen roars and surges after them. Well, we certainly made her good and mad. I suppose that's the best we can do. Hopefully, if this is the first part of Firefly's plan, he has a second laid out in that head of his.

As the rest of us look each other over, it quickly becomes clear that we're all down for the count. We're all out of fire, my entire right side is still numb and my wings are cramping up. Meatlug and Barf and Belch all managed to injure their wings. Stormfly, off to the side, apparently lost her rider, but they were rejoined. She sprained her wing during a nasty fall, though.

Zealot rushes in and wraps something tightly around Meatlug's rider's leg to stem the flow of blood. She assures us that he should be fine, but if my claw had impaled just a little closer to the inside of his leg, he would have died from blood loss by now. I feel really bad that both Meatlug _and_ her rider were injured by me while under the mind snare, but at least they should both recover from their injuries with only scars to show for it..

I'm the only dragon without injured wings, but I'm downright exhausted. We all are.

It's all up to the black dragon. The option to simply grab some land-striders as extra mind-snare scramblers has been shot down - literally. Toothless and Firefly have their claws full and the queen is still filled with fire and fury.

At least we're not dad, yet.

Oh, and all the land-striders that had been seeking cover start approaching us wearily, shiny claws out, confusion and apprehension all over their passive hum.

Well, doesn't life just always get better!


	9. Past Glories Are Poor Feeding

**A/N:  
** Easter egg time. For chapter 8, I used quotes from Portal (1&2)… again. Ehhhhh… Yes, I know, my creativity and originality sometimes astound myself as well. Anyway, down to brass tacks. Here are the quotes I referenced the last chapter.

"We are currently experiencing technical difficulties due to circumstances of potentially apocalyptic significance beyond our control."  
"Assume the party escort submission position or you will miss the party."  
"Most people emerge from suspension terribly undernourished. I want to congratulate you on beating the odds and somehow managing to pack on a few pounds."  
"The cake is a lie."  
"And he'll probably kill us because he's incredibly powerful and I have no plan."  
"I'm not going to lie to you, the odds are a million to one. And _that's_ with some generous rounding."  
"You like revenge, right? _Everybody_ likes revenge. Well, let's go get some!"  
"If we're going to explode, let's at least explode with some dignity!"  
"Burning people; he said what we're all _thinking_!"  
"You never considered that maybe I tested you to give the endless hours of your pointless existence some structure and meaning?"  
Glados: "This. Sentence. Is. FALSE! (don't think about it don't think about it…)" - Wheatley: "Umm, true, although true. Eh, that was easy. I'll be honest, I _might_ have heard that one before; sorta cheating." - Glados: "It's a paradox! There _is_ no answer!"  
"Hmm. This Plate must not be calibrated to someone of your... generous... ness. I'll add a few zeros to the maximum weight."  
Glados: "Well. This is the part where he kills us." - Wheatley: "Hello! This is the part where I kill you."  
"Why do I hate you so much? You ever wonder that? I'm brilliant. I'm not bragging. It's an _objective_ fact. I'm the most massive collection of wisdom and raw computational power that's _ever_ existed. And I _hate_ you. It can't be for no reason. You _must_ deserve it."  
Gosh golly mahogany! I really hadn't realized I had _that_ many Portal references in one chapter! I also really, really, really wanted to include Cave Johnson's inspirational rant about making life take the lemons back, but alas, I could find no suitable excuse.

The Easter eggs for this chapter kinda felt like a square peg in a round hole, but for how much I loved this sci-fi trilogy and all the author's works, there wasn't a whole lot I could work into this universe.

Also, thank you, Colorful Crayola, for beta-reading this. She just became a mommy, so I had to send Stormfly over there to babysit so that Crayola could edit my story. The silly reptile just gathered all the pillows, blankets, and bits of clothing she could find to make a nest in the living room. At least she knew better than to feed the baby regurgitated fish. _That_ would not have gone over well with the parents.

* * *

 **Past Glories Are Poor Feeding**

Sometimes, especially after escaping the queen's mind snare, I've allowed my mind to wander and tried to imagine what it's like to be someone else. For example, what would it feel like to be a scaleless, blunt-clawed, small-toothed land-strider? How can they manage to survive without wings? And someone explain to me how they can possibly remain sane when they are so deaf to projected thoughts that they must rely on a ponderously clumsy method of communication for even the simplest and most basic things? Were I subjected to such isolation, I would go completely mad in a day!

Here's a fun one: what would it feel like to be not just _any_ land-strider, but one who's running for his life through a dense forest, weaving around, over, and under trees? Why, one may wonder, is he running so frantically? Oh, let's say he's attempting to outrun a bear that wants nothing more than to kill him… and can eat him whole in a single bite… and doesn't have to dodge around the trees because they simply shatter on impact.

Funny, right? What's even funnier is that I can more easily relate to that doomed land-strider than the very thing I see before my own eyes. Replace bear fodder with Toothless and Firefly, the bear with the queen, and the trees with large sea stacks that would splatter any dragon that flies into them. The frantic, twisting path Toothless is forced to fly certainly is not aiding his attempt to outfly the massive queen, who can simply fly in a straight line, smashing the obstacles to bits. Toothless is fast, maybe even faster than yours truly, but the queen…

 _How can something so massive even fly in the_ first _place?!_

Clearly, the forces that pull _me_ towards the ground have turned a blind eye to _her_. Maybe, just as an adder has a blind spot that land-striders try to hide in, the queen has found a niche where the winds cannot see her. Each casual and hideously graceful beat of her wings eats up the distance between her and her prey. Each snap of her teeth is that much closer to grabbing the black dragon's tail. His wide neck and large lungs give him the air intake to keep up a sustained burst of energy for a while, but he cannot maintain this pace forever and the queen is showing no signs of fatigue.

It has always been my philosophy in life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly, but I honestly can't see that working in this scenario. Hopefully, at the very least, Toothless can distract the queen long enough for us to… do… something.

A startled gasp from my rider draws my attention away from the frantic chase.

 _Great, aggressive land-striders. Just what I need right now._

Almost a hundred of them warily approach, lead by the Beast himself. Well, I'm not quite sure if they're aggressive. All their muttering and thinking with their lips is as hard to catch onto as usual, and it's hard to tell from the overall tone of the hum I'm picking up what they intend to do. There's definitely shock, awe, suspicion, trepidation, and anger coming from them. To what end, though, I have no clue.

They're so focused on us that one of them stumbles over the lower half of a dead land-strider that was left behind when the queen bit off the top half. She looks down with a horrified expression and does some gesture with her hands. The knowledge passed down from captive dragons before me reveals that it's a common gesture whenever a land-strider dies in dragon training as some form of acknowledgment that, yes, he really is dead and not just sleeping. I think it is their belief that we dragons send them to some greater afterlife by killing them, but only if they fight well or something like that.

All us dragons growl at the approaching threat and their shiny claws, ready to defend ourselves, but we're so tired and injured we'd stand no chance against them. Besides, even if we _could_ kill them all, what would our riders think of that? We still need their cooperation to stay safe from the mind snare. I made a blood oath with Cougar and how could I live with myself if I betray that? What would _he_ do if I betray him to such an extent? If he's emotionally attached to these land-striders…

 _{Why yes, land-strider with a short, black mane, maybe that_ is _your hatchling on my back. What about it?}_

No response, of course. They're all deaf. Cougar starts thinking at them with his lips, telling them to stand down - we did sorta save their lives by distracting the queen, after all. He jumps down to the ground and walks towards them, but my low growl reminds him what happens when he loses contact with me and he hastily jumps back to place a hand on my snout to keep the queen out. The other riders join in, explaining that we are allies.

They're all clearly unsettled, but pacified for now. One spooks and tries to strike Stormfly with a long shiny claw, but the Beast himself intervenes and knocks the claw aside and Stick-leg smacks the offender in the back of the head.

Beast shifts his attention past me and I follow his gaze. Right. As allies, we get to helplessly watch as the queen eats Toothless and Firefly. Together!

I'll admit I was really beginning to respect that dragon, but when the queen is done with him, what can a few land-striders and injured dragons hope to accomplish? Only I have a working pair of wings, but I'm completely exhausted, so our own survival is out of the question. Maybe all those other dragons we ran into earlier will return while the queen is distracted and… I don't know, grab some riders and flee? The queen can't chase _all_ of them. I suppose they'll just have to figure things out as they go.

Offshore, the queen snaps at the black dragon again, teeth so close to his tail. Suddenly, he angles up in a frantic climb. Now, why would they do that? If the queen is gaining on them when they're flying level, what could possibly be up… there…

The clouds!

The clouds are dark and stormy and can hide the black dragon with ease. The queen has an amazing sense of smell, but that's hardly any help up there, among the chaotic, swirling winds. Are they above her? Below? Behind?

Brilliant!

They couldn't have planned that before, but I suppose that's the main thing about Toothless and Firefly. _Everything_ they do is spontaneous. Toothless had once shared something his land-strider had instilled in him. To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.

As we all squint upward, trying to make out the shapes darting around in the dark clouds, I feel something on my tail and I crane my neck around to see a land-strider kicking it in irritation.

 _{Hey, if my tail is bothering you, then move away. It has a mind of its own. It's not my fault if it sways in your face.}_

He kicks my tail again and I light myself ablaze and whirl around to roar at him while fanning my wings. We may be allies now, but I will not tolerate disrespect!

Cougar quickly positions himself between the two of us, one hand wrapped around the horn at the tip of my snout and another extended towards the rude land-strider. My rider roars at me to back down. I snarl at such a challenge, but he just gives me a pleading look, as if begging for me to trust him just this once.

Alright, I suppose I can cooperate… this time. His gestures and yapping are convincing the land-striders that he's tamed me like I'm some wild animal, but I can feel a timid sort of respect in him that tells me he would never dare try to treat me like that just to boost his own ego. I let the fires die down and put on the well-behaved dragon posture. If we survive today, he owes me my weight in fish for this. At least.

A loud crack of an explosion behind and far above sounds out and I whip around to look, slapping the rude land-strider in the process. Another explosion illuminates the massive profile of the queen within the dark clouds and she shrieks in pain.

Again and again, Toothless strikes out at the queen with his fire, each explosion briefly illuminating the profile of the queen through the dark clouds. With each impact, Toothless crows his vengeance for every dragon whose life she ruined. Each angry shriek from the queen declares her frustration at the tiny little insect stinging her.

The sky lights up bright orange from a massive torrent of the queen's fire. Within the clouds, I can imagine the black dragon looping and diving, trying desperately to evade. At times past, the queen has roasted hundreds of dragons with a single puff of intense heat inside her mountain. If the flames even _graze_ that dragon or his flammable rider, they're both done.

Above, a dark speck plunges from the stormy clouds. As the speck comes into focus, I see Toothless diving, wings folded in and body stretched out, smoke wisping from his artificial tailfin as he strains for every bit of speed possible. Firefly presses down into the dragon's back, minimizing the drag, casting frequent glances behind them. The queen is on their tail - literally - plummeting after them with her claws outstretched, eager to kill.

They're just… falling! Before, the black dragon was all fury and vengeance, shrieking his hatred for the queen. Now, though, he's almost sedated, eyes closed, calmly waiting for some sort of sign from his rider… hopefully _before_ he smacks into the ground.

 _Do… something, Toothless! Anything!_

The dragon proceeds to do absolutely nothing but dive as fast as possible. The queen opens her enormous maw and takes in a deep breath to roast them. Suddenly, Toothless extends his wings just enough to flip around to face her. A small fireball of deep bluish-purple escapes his maw to pass between her rows of teeth, causing the most beautiful sight my eyes have ever seen.

Fire.

Fire… _everywhere_!

A massive plume, fueled by the queen's own fuel within, rips out from a weakened spot in her neck in a spray of blood and smoke. A moment later, a backdraft is drawn in through that same newly-formed, ragged hole. Throughout her entire body, where she had sustained minor lacerations from her battle with us, immaculate shoots of fire erupt. She spreads her wings, but Toothless must have torn up several holes as the wing membranes tear in many places. Burning without and exploding within, she plummets into the ground at terminal velocity to crumple into a heap of fire and flesh.

Toothless spreads his own wings like a moth over a flame, desperately climbing to avoid a similar fate. As he rides the updraft from the exploding queen's body, something terrible happens. I hear a loud snap and he lurches to the side when the tail fin his rider had constructed rips away. The duo thrashes around, but they cannot avoid their fate. The massive spiked ball at the end of the queen's enormous tail is flailing around in her death throes and smacks into them with a sickening crunch.

That's the last I see before they are engulfed in a cloud of fire.

Even from a hundred wingspans away, I can feel the ground under my own talons shudder from the queen's impact. All of us - dragon and land-striders alike, dive down and sprawl out to brace against the shock wave from the explosion. My rider releases my snout and I'm about to snarl at him, but then it hit me.

The queen is gone. Gone! She's dead! The threat is over! Toothless really did it! Oh, this is the best day of my life!

And what better way to celebrate than to be showered with smoking chunks of the queen's burning body? One particularly large piece slams down right on top of Meatlug, but she's completely unphased, of course. There's a reason her type are known as _boulder_ dragons, after all.

I arch my neck to look up and see another large chunk plummeting straight towards a nearby land-strider that's lying belly-down. Thanks to his short and inflexible neck, he's completely oblivious to his impending fate, so I scramble over a few prone land-striders, carefully sink my fangs into only his hairy outer hide, gag at the stench, and yank him towards me. He and the others I had flattened in my haste shake their shiny claws at me for only an instant before the flaming mass slaps against the ground in the very spot I just forced him to vacate.

I hardly have time to puff some smoke at their insolence before I suddenly find myself running forward at a frantic pace. I spread my wings and take off before I can even ask myself, what in the name of all things that burn am I doing?!

Why am I running on a leg that hurts so much?! Why am I flying when I'm already so exhausted?!

My rider is sprinting forward and it only felt natural to follow him. From his land-bound position, he points up at a black form falling from the sky, but I'm already pumping my wings hard to ascend.

As I fly to intercept the plummeting dragon, I try not to get distracted by what just happened. My rider somehow made me act before I even knew what I was doing. It wasn't a push from within, like the queen's mind snare, but a tug from without. His conviction and haste to lead me to action alone put me up into the air without a second thought. It wasn't control, but… something else… like… inspiration… a tug from within and from without at the same time.

Cougar howls his approval and encouragement from below as I shoot upward. His intent is obvious, now, in hindsight. Toothless is flightless without his rider, now plunging down from the queen's massive fireball. Even if he could fly alone, after that terrible impact with her tail and his plunge through her fire, he is in no condition to do so.

I angle in to intercept him and draw my wings in most of the way so the wind doesn't rip them right off my torso. He slams into my back, knocking the air out of our lungs.

 _{Get away from me, Spite, or I will kill you!}_

The ungrateful dragon projects a wave of information to explain himself. His legs were pressing Firefly against the dragon's belly and his wings formed a cocoon as protection from the fire. Now that they've descended past the worst of the heat, he just wants to use his wingtips to maintain his orientation. Hopefully, if he lands solidly on his back, the ground will divert so much destruction into shattering his body that his rider will survive the impact.

If there's anything less dragon-like, then I have yet to see it. Still, I can save Toothless while he holds onto Firefly. He may be crazy and his rider even more so, but he killed the queen. I owe him that much.

I flick my tail up and he twists his own around it as I tilt my head up and to the side to clamp down on a thick strip of hide clinging to his neck. With our bodies locked together, back to back, I extend my wings as much as I dare and brace against the gale-force winds trying to rip them out. It's a strain with how completely exhausted I am, but I think we just might actually make it.

Despite my good intents, though, Toothless just snarls at me.

 _{Leave me, Spite! I can appreciate you trying to save me, but I am already as good as dead. I will not risk my rider's life for my own! I will not live to see him die!}_

 _{Don't be silly, Toothless! You really think Firefly will survive a fall at terminal velocity? Even if he does, he'll die on the inside if he loses you and you know it! Now, work with me. Give me your sight so I can steer us. We're out of the fire now, so use your wingtips to keep us steady. I can slow us down enough for a marginally dignified landing.}_

Toothless complies. With my head at an odd angle, the sight he shares helps immensely in guiding us as I cut an angle that compromises my desire to land near the shoreline and away from the queen. The ground is approaching fast and my options are limited if I don't want the wind to rip my wings clean off my body, so I work on angling us to trade altitude for lateral speed. I think I can land us near the shore where the water can soften the impact. From there, the land-striders can wade out if we need assistance. Stormfly's wings may be injured, but her long, powerful legs are just fine, so she can haul us back to land if needed.

All my plans explode in my face - literally - as a secondary blast is released from the queen's corpse. A sizable chunk of her carcass slams into my side and I give a panicked shriek as we tumble apart. The impact knocked me towards deeper waters and Toothless towards the shore, where he simply resumes his dive of death position, curled up around Firefly, falling with his back towards the ground.

The land-striders and dragons are all rushing towards us, but there's nothing they can do. I frantically look around to see the water just above me as I plunge into darkness.

########

* * *

########

AIR!

I can't breathe!

I thrash around and end up on my belly, hacking out a river of water. My first breath of air comes only after a lot of sputtering and coughing.

How did I end up here? Why am I surrounded by land-striders and, more to the point, why are they _not_ trying to kill me?

It all comes back in a rush. Toothless, the fall, I tried to help him but must have hit the water so hard I lost consciousness.

Smoke billows from the queen, now dead, chunks of her carcass strewn all across the beach. We did it. We really, actually did it! She's dead! Dead! Gone! The constant hum I could always hear from her has been silenced. Forever! Where the queen once was, there is only a void in my mind.

What do I do now? Where do I go? What does a dragon do without an oppressive queen to control him? I simply don't know.

I slowly move one leg and wing at a time to test for broken bones or other injuries. All seems well except my right leg still feels like it's burning to cinders from the inside, especially when I put weight on it. My neck feels funny, but it's nothing too bad.

Rock - no, she's Meatlug, now - fills me in on what happened. After we were separated, Toothless slammed into the water just offshore, but his momentum carried him to land and his body carved a path through the loose pebbles. I, on the other wing, fell into deeper waters and the impact must have knocked me out. Greedy - Stormfly, the deadly adder, whatever - had rushed in to help. Between her pushing and a couple land-striders pulling, they managed to drag me to shore.

Cougar was so proud that his roaring at the land-striders to obey him had actually inspired action. They were understandably hesitant to approach and even more so to help me, but they listened to my rider to drag me back to land.

Apparently, I had inhaled a lungful of water, so my rider's first instinct was to gesture for Stormfly to flip me onto my back and… jump up and down on my belly. Somehow, according to him, that saved my life. How could this make sense? I have no clue! It's land-strider logic! By now, I know better than to try to understand it.

 _I am a crow. Caw caw!_

A loud, mourning wail draws our attention down the length of the path Toothless' body carved along the beach. It sounded like some land-strider made that noise, though, not Toothless. I rush in along with any straggling land-striders, but we all end up tripping over each other to give the black dragon some breathing space.

He's laying on the beach on his side, wings folded to protect his rider with one wing resting at a decidedly unnatural angle. Blood slowly seeps out from his back and neck where the hide was descaled and torn from gouging a channel in the stony beach. While I was able to slow him down enough that he wouldn't break every bone in his body on impact, it was still far from gentle.

He's still alive and radiating intense grief and guilt for his rider. Mixed in there is some uncertainty and distrust towards the Beast. That's certainly a momentous shift from his initial hatred towards that creature the previous day. I don't ask Toothless, but it looks like something happened to change his outlook on the Beast.

Speaking of the devil himself, he's crouched in front of the dragon, gushing regret and pity for the loss of Firefly. For how deaf they are to projected thoughts and how scattered their own can be, it's times like this I am amazed at how strong and distinctive a land-strider's emotional hum can be. I can tell that the Beast would have given his own life a thousand times over to save Firefly if he could. I, too, will miss that crazy little land-strider. We owe today's victory to him as much as Toothless.

Toothless pushes through the lethargy of intense pain to lift a wing and a leg, opening the protective cocoon to expose Firefly. The little thing looks dead to my eyes and any sort of projected thoughts or passive hum is most likely just the spasms of the mind before fading away forever. Beast surges forward and reverently cradles the little rider.

He suddenly stills, though, as he presses his ear against Firefly's mouth. There's no breath.

No surprise there. The dead don't breathe.

Beast looks pleadingly at the black dragon, who can do nothing more than dig his snout into the ground to try to shut out all the pain within. There's nothing any of us dragons can do to help. We're all fangs and claws and wings and fire. We can destroy, but we cannot create. We can burn to ash, but cannot inspire growth. We're really good at taking life, but not so good at giving it back.

It's no surprise that Firefly didn't survive. Land-striders aren't dragons. They're not covered in scales. They're not used to spewing fire and inhaling smoke. The superheated smoke must have burned his lungs and put his body into some sort of shock.

Toothless lets out a long, low, mourning wail and we all join him to show our support. He gave everything he had to save his rider. I did my best. Nobody can blame the other dragons as they aren't even flight-worthy at the moment. Death simply happens, sometimes sooner than you want. What else is there to do but learn from it and live on… if living is such an option?

Beast is determined to change reality, though. He does this strange thing where he presses his mouth against Firefly's. The torso puffs up a little and Beast squeezes just above the belly and repeats, like he's breathing for the rider. A quick slap to Firefly's face awakens him, which sets Toothless off in an attempt to roar in anger that comes out as a mewling whimper. My jaw drops to the ground when Firefly's eyes actually flutter open as he gasps for breath, but his eyes close again and he goes completely slack.

His flesh is so pale. Cougar mutters that it looks as if Firefly has frozen to death, but then how would that explain his singed hair and scattered burn marks? Toothless stretches his neck to prod at his rider's arm with his snout, but it just flops back to the ground like a dead eel. He chokes back a pained yelp as he pulls himself closer, desperately licking at his rider's face.

The dragon hasn't given up on his rider, yet. Poor thing. He whines at his rider to wake up, projecting his care and concern as loud and clear as dragonly possible. He simply loves his rider. Not in the sense that a dragon may feel possessive toward a mate with excellent breeding, but something far deeper and more meaningful. He desperately begs his rider to live as he already knows he would not want to live without his precious Firefly.

Firefly's eyes flutter as he helplessly strains for breath. Everything about his passive hum tells the tale of a fish laid out on a rock, choking to death and baking in the sun. Beast touches a finger to Firefly's neck in what must be some sort of symbolic gesture and his eyes narrow. He presses the diminutive rider to the ground and thumps his sternum.

Firefly convulses, then goes completely slack. Beast roars his desperation and determination at Firefly to stay awake. Toothless finds the strength to howl his grief. Beast thumps the sternum again and puffs up the torso.

Another thump wakes Firefly from death again, but this time, Beast quickly rolls him onto his stomach and thumps his back. This time, Firefly doesn't die again. He gasps through a few breaths as Beast lays a finger to his neck again and heaves a relieved sigh. As Firefly's breathing returns to normal, he falls unconscious again, but is still alive, his torso swelling ever so gently with each shallow breath.

Completely at a loss for how to properly express himself, Toothless whines, purrs, trills, and howls as he wriggles spasmodically. He eventually settles for just lunging forward to frantically lick his rider. He then proceeds to lick Beast with such vehemence the other land-striders thought the dragon was trying to eat him and Beast had to wave them off.

We all roar at the triumph accomplished by land-strider magic. So, ummm, there you have it. When someone is dead, you puff up their torso with your breath and hit them a bunch and that works because… land-strider logic. I am a crow.

Behind me, my rider suddenly stills in his jumping and howling to give me an incredulous look as if he's never seen a nightmarish monster caw like a bird.

 _If anybody so much as thinks about reviving the queen like that, I will bite off their head!_

In all their cheering, some land-striders cast about for someone with whom to celebrate and take a startled step back at the sight of us dragons breathing down their necks as if they forgot in such a short timespan that, yes, we still exist.

I, for one, could do with sleeping for a few days. I can fly all day without rest, but sudden and intense bursts of energy simply drain the life right out of me. As the land-striders eventually settle down and disperse to take care of their dead and injured, I take a few weary and pained strides to flop down next to Toothless, who hardly spares a flick of his eyes before resuming his ministrations to his rider.

 _{Will he survive, Toothless?}_

 _{_ WE _will survive.}_

I let out an annoyed groan.

 _{I know_ you _will survive. You couldn't have impacted the ground too hard after we were knocked apart, but will Firefly survive?}_

 _{There is no Toothless. There is no Firefly. We are incomplete parts of a single whole. You were right, though, about Firefly. He would have died on the inside if he survived and I had not. You have my gratitude for saving us.}_

 _{I'll admit, Toothless, all along, we thought you were just a thorn in our side, but we needed you and the change you brought. We all thought you were crazy - and we were right - but it turned out to be a_ good _sort of crazy. You were right about everything.}_

Toothless snarls and snaps warningly at me. Cougar, who was crouched by me and idly stroking my snout, rises to position himself between us. Some nearby land-striders rise up around us, startled, but Toothless ignores them as he paws his rider in a little closer to himself.

 _{Don't you_ dare _deny Firefly the respect he deserves! To disrespect one of us is to disrespect both of us. Any creature, dragon or land-strider, who forgets this will immediately come to regret it. Firefly may be a land-strider, but he is my equal. No, he is my alpha. Where I surpass him in size and strength and fire and fangs and claws, he is my greater when it comes to his mind. After all, It was he who convinced some whimpering dragons to come here and face the queen instead of awaiting your doom like sheep. It was his idea to ascend up into the clouds where we could take our time and strike out at the queen instead of just fleeing for our lives. It was his idea to blast holes in her wings, lure her to dive after us, and blow her up from the inside out.}_

To be honest, I'm actually surprised the queen allowed that to happen. I never saw it coming, but she is - well, nobody knows how old she is. I voice my thoughts to Toothless.

 _{Well, Spite, it pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety. I'm just glad he didn't tell me to spare the queen. I would have, too, because I trust him that much. He has always been of the mind that violence is the last resort for the incompetent, but I have always told him to never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right. He could not hear me, but I guess he got the message, one way or another.}_

I numbly stare at Toothless as he gently licks his rider's left leg. It looks really bad and several land-striders are hissing at each other and pointing at it with concern thick in their hum. They try to ward off the dragon's tongue, but a show of teeth and some growling make short work of his uncontested claim to his rider.

 _{Your Firefly really is special? Even compared to other land-striders?}_

 _{I told you he has this gift for sustainable serendipity. It drives me insane at times, but no matter what risk he takes, he always came out ahead.}_

To substantiate such a statement, Toothless shows me what happened shortly before he was freed from his shackles on the land-strider sea vessel, back when we were distracting the queen to procure some time. A wild swing of her tail had cracked the vessel in half, sending Toothless sinking into the water. Firefly swam down to him, desperately tugging at the restraints to free his dragon. He knew he was not strong enough to succeed, but did not give up, even as his eyes rolled back and the air in his lungs bubbled out.

That's when the Beast swam down to pluck him up and brought him to land. Beast then swam back and, after a moment of hesitation, something snapped in his mind and he freed the formerly hated dragon, who wasted no time in bursting from the water so his rider could mount up.

Looking back, It's now clear as day to Toothless. Firefly _made_ Beast free the dragon. In the same way Cougar made me want to fly up to break Toothless' fall, Firefly inspired specific action from the Beast. Neither Beast nor I were forced to do anything, but someone simply showed us what we should do and we naturally agreed. If Firefly wasn't right there, at that very moment, drowning and on the verge of death, Beast would not have dove down there. He would not have broken the shackles restraining the dragon. The queen would be alive right now and I would be her mindless thrall… again.

Any other observer would have seen a fool with a death wish. To Toothless, it was simple: Firefly is a genius who can see what needs to be. Somehow, he simply knew he had to be right there at precisely that moment. If he was anywhere else, Beast would not have freed the dragon and things would have turned out so much worse.

From his sprawled-out position on his side, Toothless fixes a narrow glare at me for ever doubting his rider.

 _{It's as if he's guided by something… whether from within or without, I cannot say.}_

I snort at such a statement that reminds me of that old Raven we left behind. Wait a moment. If Firefly's seemingly innocuous actions inspire action from others that he himself cannot perform, does that mean… no… it cannot be… but then….

Earlier today, as we flew towards the queen, those dragons who had just recently escaped the mind snare, they were all very tired. I could see it in how they moved, even through all the sheer panic and exhilaration. The only explanation could be that they had just come back from a raid. Normally, the queen sends only a quarter of her dragons that are strong enough to raid. A couple hundred is plenty to bring back enough food for her without straining the land-striders so much that they can't produce any more. That way, only a portion of the nest is active so the rest can breed, raise their young, and heal from any injuries while they hunt or snap up fish for the queen. However, that was the entire nest we flew into today.

If all those dragons weren't already released from the mind snare before we even arrived, if we had to contend with even a few of them in addition to the queen, we would have utterly failed. They were freed from the mind snare, but how? Could this have something to do with Firefly "accidentally" saving the day again?

I share this with the black dragon. _{Toothless, The queen easily dominated my own mind when I lost contact with my rider. How did all those dragons escape her snare?}_

 _{Simple. I made her very angry. She lost focus. A land-strider ended up touching me for a short while and I projected all the mind-scrambling goodness he was inadvertently sharing with me. Projecting thoughts far and wide is something my species is especially gifted at, after all. When you think about it, that was Firefly's doing. It was he who was so determined to face off against you yesterday. What we all saw as a disaster ultimately led to me being at the right place at the right time to free those dragons. We would all be thralls to the queen right now, otherwise. That is why I am willing to forgive you for spooking so easily and attacking my rider the other day. Even_ that _played a part in today's victory.}_

Toothless yelps in pain and jerks his head back. Meatlug's rider squeaks an apology as he tries to cleanse the black dragon's torn and bloody hide with water and some sort of fibrous, floppy thing in his hand. Stormfly shoves him out of the way to gently give the tattered hide a proper licking, eliciting a purr of gratitude.

 _{That, alone, wouldn't have been enough, were it not for the fact that all those dragons just came back from an extensive raid to one of those islands farther out than most. The queen's grip on them had already weakened from distance and time. My involvement was the last bit needed to break her hold.}_

I suppose that makes sense- Wait a moment! I snap my head up, but that's a mistake in my exhausted state. I stare at Toothless in disbelief as my blurring vision slowly evens out.

This wasn't the first time the queen sent her entire nest on a single raid. Sometimes, a population of land-striders becomes too unruly and she wipes them all out by sending every dragon she can. Instead of simply taking food and the occasional land-strider as tribute, she would make us kill them all. It's costly to her as many dragons die and she loses another source of food until they repopulate that area, but she found it necessary at times to keep things in balance if one island threatened her dominion.

Our island would have been just that sort of threat.

The queen saw Toothless with riders on his back and she could tell she couldn't control him. We were all so certain she would lash out immediately and she certainly did, but her dragons attacked the wrong island. The queen meant to wipe us out, but simply… missed.

How?!

 _{They didn't come to our island, Toothless. We were so sure she would send them to us.}_

 _{She did. Or so she thought, at least. When I took Firefly and Zealot to the nest the day before you met him under the iron web, I shared certain things with the queen. With both land-striders on my back, I had no trouble controlling what thoughts I was projecting at the queen even though she was trying to rip every last detail from my mind. She knew which island I fell to when Firefly shot me down. She could see that Firefly helped me fly again. I shared with the queen some of our flights together, where we would fly to different islands to simply get away for awhile. Once, we flew far enough to see dragons who were free from the mind snare. I almost died with how confidently and recklessly Firefly would approach some of them.}_

With the bleeding abated and Toothless' lacerations cleansed, Meatlug's rider shoves Stormfly out of the way. She gives an indignant squawk, but Toothless actually purrs in contentment at the cool, soothing effect of some sort of green, viscous substance being spread on his back and around the base of his injured wing. He then chokes out a gasp and a snarl as the pudgy rider takes a firm hold the wing, which was bent at an unnatural angle, and pulls. A loud pop sounds out from the joint, but the wing settles back into its more natural position.

 _{I really don't know if I want to bite his head off or lick his face! That hurt a lot, but my wing actually feels much better, now.}_

 _{That doesn't answer my question, Toothless! How did the queen end up attacking a different island than_ ours _?}_

 _{The queen knew Firefly was certain he could never convince the land-striders on_ his _island to allow him to carry on as my rider. If they found out about me, they would kill both of us, or so we assumed at that time.}_

A strange feeling on my hip tears my attention away from Toothless to look down my flank. A cool, green, viscous substance is spread around where my injured leg connects to my hip. Meatlug's rider is pressing his fingers into my scaly hide, poking around the joint, with Cougar and some other land-strider looking over his shoulder. They all suddenly grab my leg and I snarl at them, but Cougar gives me a pat on the side that is somehow more reassuring than it should be. Just like with Toothless' wing, they tug. Hard! A loud pop coincides with a bolt of lightning arcing up my spine and my vision flashes black and red for a moment. I light myself ablaze and jump up to face them.

Ignoring the threat of a flaming, fang-chomping dragon behind him, Cougar gives the pudgy rider a friendly slap on the shoulder and chitters his thanks. As I contemplate whether I want to bite all of them in half, or just Cougar, Meatlug strides up and bunts my head to the side, wagging her stubby tail excitedly. Only now do I notice that her injured leg is wrapped in hide and bound up in some sticks.

 _{I think I figured out what to name my rider! Benevolent! It's quite fitting, isn't it? He did this to my leg so I could put weight on it without pain and fixed Toothless' wing and your leg - even after I terrorized him almost to death during land-strider training and you almost killed him today. He is so kind and caring to try so hard to help and take care of us.}_

 _{I want to bite off Benevolent's head! That hurt a lot!}_

 _{But your leg feels better, now, doesn't it?}_

 _{What do you mean, my leg feels better?! That hurt! It was agony to put weight on the leg before, but now-}_

Wait a moment. I experimentally shift my weight from leg to leg with surprisingly little discomfort. Well, how about that! I must admit she's right, so I allow the flames to die down, sprawl out on the ground again, and turn to face Toothless.

 _{So knowing that Firefly would be rejected by the other land-striders convinced the queen to raid a different island?}_

The black dragon idly arcs his wing up and down in the air, appreciating the restored functionality.

 _{That is one scale, but a dragon has many. The queen saw that Firefly and Zealot, on my back, were quite slender and light and had a secure hold on me with all those bits of hide wrapped around my neck and torso. That made them resemble land-striders on a particular island near the edge of her range of control. She made the assumption. I simply confirmed it.}_

That particular island was particularly annoying whenever the queen made us raid it. True enough, the land-striders were much leaner than most, but very quick and clever. They usually didn't try to kill us dragons, but distracted us and made us waste time until the queen pulled us back empty-taloned. They would lure us to one place with a couple exposed animals to snatch, then a bunch of them would pop out of nowhere, shooting some sort of wooden quills using a bent stick with a vine attached to both ends.

At a disadvantage in the dense forest, we would fly away in search of a better fight, but it was always the same scenario. Because their forest limited our mobility near the ground - and our fires never took out more than ferns and brambles, for some strange reason - they were able to ride horses without us simply plucking up both rider and beast, which made them even more annoying.

Toothless convinced the queen that he and Firefly were living on that island. He managed to actually _deceive_ the queen. Dragon's don't do that. We _can't_ invent a lie. To do so would require us to create thoughts out of nothing like a land-strider. Maybe Firefly's mind really _is_ rubbing off on his dragon after all.

I flick my tongue out and lick Toothless' snout. All along, he was on our side. He protected us by deceiving the queen so she would lash out at some other island than ours.

A realization dawns on me that causes me to freeze mid-lick.

 _{Toothless, All that happened the day before you were taken by the land-striders to the queen's nest. You could have told us. We were so certain she would attack us! Why did you say nothing?}_

Toothless looks at me like I'm just a hatchling, petulantly refusing to learn to fly.

 _{You did try to kill my rider.}_

He cranes his neck around to give a lick to his unconscious - but definitely alive - rider. I suppose I have no room to argue there.

Both of us settle down to sleep. We're all beyond exhausted. It has been a struggle to stay awake even this long.

Next to my head, Cougar is introducing me to various land-striders. However, he takes his pride as my rider too far and places a foot on my shoulder while possessively grabbing the vine still secured around my neck, ignoring my warning growl as he tells everyone that I am _his_ dragon.

 _Oh, Cougar, I hope you realize you are literally asking for this._

I flick my tail and wrap it around his ankle, yanking him up to hang upside down in front of my snout. I bare my fangs and he gives me a sheepish grin, so I flop him to the ground in front of me and drop my head on top, knocking the wind out of him.

There! _Now_ I can go to sleep.

* * *

 **A/N 2.0**

Any cardiologists out there? I think I recall having heard, in a CPR class, that thumping the chest real hard has a (very tiny) chance of causing a fibrillating heart to start beating again (and probably a much bigger chance of breaking ribs). According to one instructor, CPR itself is not meant to make a fibrillating heart start pumping again, but just helps the body get air and blood circulating until EMR can work their magic, so I figured Stoick would try such desperate measures instead of the classic CPR we see on TV today.


	10. Here in the Nest I Love

**A/N:  
** Easter Egg time. For the previous chapter, I tipped my hat to the Foundation series, by Isaac Asimov. It was the foundation (pun intended) on how I ended up tackling telepathy in this story (and my other stories #ShamelessSelfPlug). The third book in the Foundation trilogy featured a character who was a very powerful telepath that gave me some ideas for the Red Death. Anyway, here are the quotes I used.

"Past glories are poor feeding."  
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right."  
"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety."  
"To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well."  
"It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly."  
"Violence is the last refuge for the incompetent."

* * *

 **Here in the Nest I Love**

With wings locked in place, a strong headwind lifts me up higher and higher without effort. Arriving at a sufficient altitude, I flick my tail and pull in one wing to face the direction I want to fly and angle almost straight down, then level out with my wings partially tucked in to glide at high speed just over the waves of the ocean. As my speed drops almost too low to sustain flight, I give a lazy flap and lock my wings again, angling myself so that the wind can carry me aloft.

It is the most energy efficient means of flying long distances. Ascend on the thermals and stiff winds, dive, glide over the water where the wind is almost nothing, then ascend again and repeat. It's not the fastest way to fly, but it's the best I can manage for now.

I suppose it was unavoidable, really. Firefly is alive, but in dire condition. His left leg that all the land-striders were pointing and hissing at is something that will not heal. In fact, the entire body is draining itself of vitality while trying to deal with the injury. The offending limb is currently in Toothless's toothless mouth, soaking in saliva. Beast was not too thrilled by what looked like the dragon eating his rider's leg, but nobody could deny that exposing the burnt, shattered, and bloody limb to open air was much more harmful, so Beast eventually relented.

Stick-leg, having experienced the loss of two limbs - one of them from me while I was under the queen's mind snare if memory serves - has no room for doubt that Firefly will die if the mangled portion of his leg is not cleanly severed off immediately. Already, signs of infection can be observed, and it will only worsen as time drags on. Toothless can lick the surface all he wants, but death spreads from within.

Once again, surprisingly enough, the ability us dragons have to burn, shred, and destroy doesn't solve all problems. All the land-striders on the now-dead queen's island are just like us in this way. With the exception of the Beast breathing life back into Firefly, they are good at taking life, but not so good at giving it back.

They need the skills of a certain land-strider. Raven. The one who has comforted dragons as they die apparently has the skills to restore vitality to a dying body. She's back on that island where we trained land-striders, though. With all the wooden vessels shattered and smoldering from the queen's wrath, unless the land-striders learn to stride on water - an amusing talent one small species of wingless dragons possess - they're stuck.

All that, of course, led to Toothless looking to _somebody_ to spread his wings to save the day. _Somebody_ needed to fly off to bring back Raven to heal Firefly. _Somebody_ was the only dragon with a pair of working wings after all the chaos and fighting. However, even after whatever paltry food offering could be scrounged up, _somebody_ still felt like he needed to eat a shark and a bear and then sleep for several days before he could feel like flying would be a good idea.

The urgency of Firefly's condition didn't allow me time to go hunt for food on a nearby island or dive for fish, so I tried nibbling on the queen's flesh and ended up heaving myself sick. Unlike land-bound creatures, I don't carry around thick slabs of fat under my hide to sustain me for days without food. There's simply nothing left and now I'm flying over open water and feel completely dead on the inside.

I can barely feel my wings.

On top of that, flying has become so _boring_. That's just not right, even in my exhausted state. After all, what's more exhilarating than flying? Nothing! Absolutely nothing can ever come close to comparing. Flight is a thrill that never dulls or grows old. However, now I just feel like there's _something_ missing from my life. Something with two arms, two legs, and black hair.

Toothless had mentioned that his Firefly had awakened a certain euphoria or something like that. He didn't have the ability to fly alone, but when his rider wasn't present, he felt lonely and incomplete. A sort of longing for something precious and lost. At first, It was difficult for him to even come to terms with such a feeling. Dragons don't feel lonely. It's as foreign of a sensation as the vertigo our riders felt the first time they flew. We don't seek and crave companionship as land-striders do.

I'm terrified to admit that, without my rider, flying is nothing more than a dull chore. Without Cougar roaring and crooning and shrieking and struggling to balance on my neck, it feels so empty. To make it even worse, I _still_ feel a tug in my heart for leaving him behind without a proper explanation. There's only so much that growling and trilling and licking could convey, but once we realized that Raven could help Firefly, I simply didn't have the time or energy to spare to take my rider with me.

I snap my wings wide-open again, allowing the wind to fill them out and lift me up, giving me a moment to rest. As I gain some altitude, I take another good look at what was, not long ago, three specks floating on the ocean ahead. Another dive, another glide towards the specks. Another ascent. Another dive. Another ascent.

Well, how about that? These specks are really land-strider ocean vessels after all. I had assumed it was just coincidence that they were between me and the island I was flying towards, but they appear to be _from_ that island even though I'm not even halfway there. A few land-striders meander about on each vessel. One of them is the withered, three-legged form of Raven with a little mink dragon perched on her shoulder.

I descend to circle around the vessel, unsure of what to do. Why is _Raven_ here? If we had failed to kill the queen, she would only be hastening her own demise. I guess it has something to do with how she remembers the future, but what of the other land-striders? I came for Raven, but I'm far too exhausted to even try to fight off the others.

 _{Hookfang, if my vision was right, the queen has been destroyed and Firefly needs my help. These land-striders will not harm you. Please land in the clearing we left for you.}_

That would be Raven for sure. She's proven herself trustworthy so far and I suppose I really have no choice unless I want to fly back alone to watch Firefly slowly die and Toothless quickly go insane. I comply, flaring to land at the leading edge of the vessel, talons wrapped around some branch jutting at an odd angle and wings wrapped around a tree sprouting out of the floor.

I've never been on a land-strider vessel before… I hate it! The whole structure feels like it's sinking under my talons. Like a sick beast a couple breaths from death, it heaves up and down with every single wave. All around, large, inorganic wings flap and flutter mindlessly like a demented dragon. Vines stretch everywhere at all sort of angles, hissing and snapping in the wind.

One land-strider has a shiny claw held out at the ready. I rear back and arch my neck to look down at him, fangs bared. He stumbles back a step, casting furtive glances as though checking if anyone would help him attack me.

Raven hobbles up to smack both of us with her stick, irritation all over her emotional hum. She then points to some sort of wide, stout logs near the center of the vessel. A couple land-striders remove the top of a log to reveal that it's actually hollowed out and filled with… with…

FOOD!

Fish! Ha! It's completely full of fish! Large fish! Small fish! Light fish! Dark fish! Best of all, no eels!

I lunge forward with reckless abandon, but stop halfway, casting a furtive glance at Raven. I am in no condition to make demands or take anything by force.

 _{Yes, dragon, this is my tribute to you. Firefly needs me and I need you to take me to him, but who would benefit if you simply fall out of the sky?}_

Without any further hesitation, I enact a marvelous trick I've been perfecting my entire life where I instantly cause things to disappear. _Now_ you see the fish…

It is with an amusing mixture of awe and disgust that the land-striders take in the sight of a dragon greedily snapping up the fish and shoving them down his gullet as fast as possible. I practically dive into the hollow log to scrape up the last of those delicious beauties clinging to the corners and it falls over, sending me scrambling across the vessel to chase it down. Instead of helpfully holding the log still, though, the land-striders just flee.

I then dunk my head into the other hollow log with fresh water, lapping and slurping with reckless abandon. In all my excitement, my tail whacks something and I hear a yelp and splash to follow.

Oops.

Land-striders can swim, anyway. I project an apology that they're all doubtless too deaf to hear.

It's the thought that counts.

Finally satisfied, I remember that breathing is a thing I should do sometimes and pant some air as Raven approaches me. Already, strength is returning to my body. I still could do with sleeping through several oscillations of the sun, but having some sustenance makes a big difference.

Nose flits down and paces around as if inspecting my condition. I'm still not sure what to make of him. He was an effective leader in our land-strider training, but also the most resistant to Firefly. When Firefly let us all out of our caves, Nose would have killed him and the queen would have my mind by now were it not for Zealot's swift intervention. I can honestly understand Nose's motives, though. We were all confused at best and paranoid at worst. He must have felt like every bit of stability he had ever taken for granted was turned upside-down and inside-out by that little land-strider.

Raven pats some sort of animal hide sack hanging from her torso, projecting details of various implements and consumable substances therein that would help Firefly. She then helps herself to my back. I allow it. I came for her, after all. It is only to my advantage that she met me halfway to her island so I wouldn't have to fly as far. Besides, by my egg, I certainly won't complain about the fish!

During the entire flight back, Nose is right by my side, absolutely silent. Not a single projected thought and all I can pick up from his passive hum is an ill-boding sort of resignation. Any inquiry as to what he's thinking or what he plans to do is met with silence and avoided eye contact.

Rise. Swoop. Glide. Rise. Swoop. Glide.

All around, many of the dragons who had been freed from the queen's mind snare swarm about, cawing and roaring and screeching and crooning, projecting a torrent of information to each other, sharing what they had seen and can now remember of their humiliating past. Speaking from experience, I know how harsh and difficult it is to come to terms with all this; it's the downside to having a flawless memory since the day we hatch.

These dragons here represent only a fraction of how many were freed from the mind snare today. As they "woke up" to realize that they were mindless thralls their whole life, madness ensued. Upon waking from the mind snare, where I had repeatedly smashed my head against the cave wall and tried to snuff out my life with my flames in that confined space, these dragons were flying freely. They roared and flew and attacked each other with fang and claw and fire to release their frustration and rage.

Some dragons, particularly the older ones, simply couldn't deal with it all. They folded their wings in and dove into the water below in a true expression of their newfound freedom over their own thoughts and actions. Either that or it was to drown out their grief.

Other younger dragons flew off to find their spawning grounds or to just live their own lives and fly wherever the winds would take them. Those currently surrounding me are the remnant left behind. As I fill them in on how Toothless and Firefly destroyed the queen - with the help of yours truly, of course - most of them decide to fly with me to see them. The idea of a single dragon and a land-strider taking down a massive queen that ruled over us for so long is, admittedly, a very large fish to swallow.

One dragon, a male emerald-green deadly adder, stares longingly at some of the bodies of the dragons who drowned out their grief, floating on the waves below. He desires nothing more than to join them, but it's as if his body simply will not comply and allow it. With a resigned sigh, he glides along with the rest of us.

The sea stacks surrounding the queen's island pass us by. The ever-present fog has parted and the dark clouds above have moved on to reveal a nice, starry night.

Rise. Swoop. Glide.

A thought suddenly comes to mind and I look over at Nose.

 _{You will not harm Firefly. I will eat you if you try.}_

I would expect nothing short of hissing and snarling at such a threat. We dragons aren't Firefly. We don't return aggression with compassion. We don't warble and project some agreement as land-striders do, but deal with every situation in a very physical way. However, Nose simply flies along with that ever-present resignation in his hum. Raven strokes my neck reassuringly, but offers no insight into the dragon's strange and uncharacteristically humble behavior.

I angle in to land off to the side to avoid showering Firefly with debris and walk over. Raven dismounts, aided by Beast. Nose scuttles up to Firefly and Toothless, still as silent as ever. He sniffs at Firefly, enwrapped by his dragon's legs and wings, and croons sadly.

Suddenly, Toothless lunges, teeth bared, and snaps up the mink dragon in his maw. Nose makes no attempt to escape or struggle or fight back. He just limply hangs there with teeth lightly pricking along his belly and back. One wing is inside Toothless' mouth, but he has no offensive options at the moment except make his killer gag on a wing before the teeth come down hard.

 _{Give me one good reason why I should not kill you here and now, Nose!}_

There's a dangerous tone to the black dragon's projections. His entire body quivers with barely restrained fury. I can't help but recall the very same demand made by Nose when Toothless was shoved into his cave, maw and wings all bound up.

We had already shared everything with Toothless. He knows this little dragon tried to kill Firefly when he released us all from our caves. Granted, I, too, once tried to kill him the day before, so I'm no more innocent than Nose, but I have had the opportunity to prove my change of heart beyond any doubt.

However, all Toothless can see is his precious rider, desperately clinging to the verge of life, and a little mink dragon who almost talked us all out of coming here in the first place. Uncomfortable questions linger. Could things have been different otherwise? If Nose was more cooperative, would Firefly have been in a better position to rally the aid of the other land-striders with more ease? Could our injuries have been avoided? Would Firefly's leg be spared its twisted and mangled fate? Sure, Nose did cooperate for that one training session with the land-strider students, but he was the most resilient towards Firefly's plan, especially after they flew to the queen's nest a couple days ago.

 _{Answer me_ NOW _! Pathetic creature! Venomous slug! Backbiting eel! You would have killed_ MY _Firefly hardly a day ago! You almost convinced the other dragons to not fly here with Firefly were it not for Raven's intervention. Now, you come with the pretense of remorse?! Explain yourself!}_

Silence. Aside from Toothless' growling, absolute silence. Even the land-striders and dragons gathered around hold their breath. Nose holds his peace, but his passive hum radiates defeat and regret. He recognizes he was in error, that is clear. However, compassion is far removed from Toothless.

New questions arise. Nose didn't have to fly here. He could have gone his own way long ago. What brought him here? What did he seek? Could the pang of guilt, adorned with his overall weariness of his suddenly tumultuous life, have led him to seek this dragon's maw? Perhaps this is his easy way out of it all, just like those dragons who drowned themselves to end the pain of remembering?

Toothless is about to crunch down. One of those twitches in his neck will slam his jaw shut. Nose is ready to accept it. He literally delivered himself into the maw of a dragon who would gladly claim vengeance. Neither of them, though, are prepared for the one thing in the entire world that can stop Toothless - a force so powerful that his knees start shaking and the air is knocked out of him as he completely deflates.

His jaw slackens in shock and disbelief as his eyes catch a few slender fingers feebly grasping at his prey.

As he follows those fingers back to their owner, Toothless' hum turns from acidic anger to bitter doubt. Firefly had been asleep, but is now straining to hold onto consciousness, face as pale as ever, eyes half-lidded, gasping in pain at even this small gesture. Toothless opens his mouth with a petulant whine and lets Nose fall to the ground. Firefly's hum turns from panicked and worried to contented as he throws his last conscious effort into giving his dragon an affectionate pat before sliding back to sleep.

Toothless, ever the black-scaled extension of his rider's will, looks down at Nose, who rolls to his belly and looks back. Nothing needs to be said. Firefly's intent was clear as day. Nose scuttles up to Raven's shoulder and Toothless lets out a weary groan as he resumes his ministrations for his rider.

 _{Take your miserable life and leave me, Nose. If you want to make amends, you can do so by ensuring I never see you again.}_

The mink dragon naturally echos Toothless' projections for the sake of Raven, who hobbles up and crouches over Firefly to inspect him, clicking her tongue in thought. She reaches a hand forward to stroke the black dragon's head.

 _{I will have to insist otherwise, Toothless. I plan to use his fire to help me heal Firefly. Your rider will not live unless I sever the mangled portion of his leg. I will do so now before he dies, unless you would like to throw a fit and cause even more drama.}_

Toothless glares at Raven, but flops his head on the ground to allow her to work. I huff in amusement.

 _{Do my eyes deceive me, or have you traded one queen for another? I bet Firefly could merely suggest that he'd want you to eat your own wings and you would do so.}_

The black dragon raises himself up on his forelegs, straightening his posture.

 _{Without a second thought, but Firefly is nothing like the queen. There is no coercion or control. I_ choose _to stand for him! That makes_ all _the difference in the world!}_

Raven pours some liquid down Firefly's throat and I can feel his slumber deepen. She then spreads some heady liquids and oils on the rider's mangled leg, pricking the skin here and there.

Rock slides up to the other side of Toothless to lick her rider, who is trying to choke down his squeamishness as he assists Raven.

 _{Toothless has a good point. After all, when you think about it, is there no greater demonstration of one's freedom than to choose to live for a cause that matters to him?}_

Raven pulls out some sort of shiny claw. It's very slender with many tiny teeth along one side. She then instructs Toothless to lay on top of his rider to restrain any thrashing. The dragon's teeth extend and retract wildly as he fights to control himself. The thought of watching Raven do this to his rider is almost too much to bear.

As if to distract himself from the sight, he flicks his eyes up to me.

 _{Only a few days ago, I was contemplating all the things I could do with Firefly. Train him to be my new tail fin. Take me where I please as I figure out what to do with my life. Escape the queen's reach with his aid. Everything has changed since then. I would sooner die than allow harm to come to him. We need each other. We were_ meant _for each other! Who could see that a land-strider would come that could change the shape of my dreams? Helpless, now, I stand by him, watching older dreams grow dim.}_

Raven mutters some sort of plea to her gods and drags the fine-toothed claw along Firefly's leg, just above the mangled portion. I wince at the spike of grief from all land-striders and dragons nearby. Even in his sleepy stupor, Firefly cries out and thrashes impotently under the weight of his dragon. Toothless howls and whines. Benevolent redoubles his efforts to keep Firefly's leg absolutely still.

As quick as it all started, Raven retracts the claw. She applies more of those heady liquids and folds a flap of skin still attached over the freshly severed stump. She then uses some very fine vines and a very slender iron fang to bind up the flesh. During all this, Nose had been blowing a narrow stream of fire at a smooth shiny claw, heating it up until it turned black. Raven takes that and presses it against any ragged edges of flesh before binding it under heavily oiled layers of soft hide.

With the deed done, she shakily stands, wheezing from the effort. I can tell she, too, loves Firefly. This must have been as difficult a task for her to perform as it was for Toothless to watch.

Barf and Belch sidle up with one head nuzzling Toothless and the other, Raven.

 _{You know, Toothless, this isn't all that bad.}_

 _{Yeah, you see, your rider was always a light burden to bear.}_

 _{But now he's even_ lighter _!}_

Toothless groans. _{Quiet, dragon, before I get angry, because when I get angry, even flies don't dare to fly!}_

 _{We are very frightened. After we find something to eat, I think we shall faint.}_

 _{Yeah, just trying to look on the bright side.}_

 _{Don't make me bite off your heads._ Both _of them!}_

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A dragon on the roof.

Sounds crazy, no?

But here at my new island, one might say every one of us is a dragon on the roof, trying to bellow out a pleasant, simple roar without breaking his neck.

It isn't easy.

One might ask why do I stay up there if it's so dangerous? I stay because my rider is asleep and I'm bored. And how do I keep my balance? That I can tell you in one word.

Claws!

As my rider wearily stumbles towards the opening in the wall of his nest, I press down, dig my claws in to grab the edge, and extend my neck down to snap him up by his outer hide, flicking him onto my back. He yelps in surprise and I pump my wings to take off into the brisk dawn sky.

Now _this_ is how flying is _supposed_ to be! Pure, unadulterated exhilaration! We swoop and dive and spin, roaring and whooping with reckless abandon. All around, hundreds of other dragons ascend to join us, drawn by curiosity at the riders we usually carry around, as is common whenever myself, Stormfly, Meatlug, or Barf and Belch take to the skies.

We're all just waiting for Firefly to wake up. The land-striders want to have some sort of formal gathering to recognize him. We dragons also want to see him when he finally emerges from his own nest and walk among us.

So far, our presence on the land-striders' island has been met with a distinct lack of retribution and a notable attempt at hospitality. I must say I'm downright impressed, considering they have known nothing but death and destruction from us for countless generations. They've been so calm, in fact, that when confronted by a non-aggressive dragon, they hardly even start waving their shiny claws around before remembering we're no longer mindless thralls… most of the time.

In response to such consideration from the land-striders, we have done our best to minimize our disturbance to their lifestyle. We mainly just roam the forest when not flying and never steal food as that would only remind us of our humiliating past as the queen's mindless thralls. Well, I suppose it's not accurate to say that we _never_ steal food, but we never do it _on purpose_.

For example, I recently learned that a ragged goat carcass hanging from a tree isn't really an offering for any dragon to eat. However, we've learned a nifty little trick. If another dragon slaps the offender on the snout with his tail, the land-striders become so distracted laughing in amusement that they forget how angry they're supposed to be. It helps to smooth out ruffled scales.

Of course, this surely cannot last forever and we know it. Even if the land-striders would enjoy nesting among hundreds of dragons for the indefinite future, we need our space. If things get too crowded for too long, we have a tendency to start killing each other as food, mates, and nesting grounds become too limited. Conversely, if we are spread too far and thin, then we are naturally drawn together in search of mates and hunting partners. Currently, our unified bewilderment as to what to do with our suddenly free lives and our reverence for Firefly and Toothless has united us, but it cannot last forever.

Toothless, myself, Stormfly, Meatlug, and Barf and Belch are the exceptions, of course. There shouldn't be any issue if _we_ are here to stay. Not that we wanted to. Well, not _initially_ at least. Toothless had no doubt in his mind that he would live and die by Firefly's side, but the rest of us had tried to simply fly away. We tried to embrace a solitary life like the other dragons. We tried to shed our riders and prove that we can be just as happy without them.

We failed so miserably.

It's just never going to happen. Cougar has filled a certain void the deceased queen had left behind. Flying with him is so much more enjoyable than flying alone has ever been. Besides, we share a certain understanding. I let him ride on my back when he's bored and he flies with me when I'm bored. He tries to impress his peers by ordering me around and I use my tail to knock him to the ground. He points at some wooden object and orders me to annihilate it, I set his outer hide on fire and he frantically runs around for water to quench the flames.

See? We jive together!

Despite all this, there are still moments of tension between land-striders and dragons. Sometimes, watching a land-strider come to terms with the fact that a dragon isn't trying to bite his head off can be quite amusing, especially after they've consumed some sort of brown, foamy liquid. For example, every night, when Beast returns to his nest to see Toothless curled around Firefly - who is related by blood, as hard as that is to believe - he feels the pressing need to express his observation of the obvious as some means of coping with reality.

 _{You're a dragon. This is my nest. You're a dragon in my nest. And you're not attacking me. I kill dragons. Well, not you, you're fine. Did you_ know _you're a dragon? You killed my mate. Well, not you, you're fine. Some_ other _dragon killed my mate. Do you know him? I will find him and kill him. You're a dragon. This is my nest.}_

Depending on how much of this brown, heady liquid Beast has consumed that night, this could go on for quite some time. Add Stick-leg to the scene and things get even more entertaining. The amazing thing about this is that land-striders seem to be more clear in their thought projections than normal when they think with their lips in this state. It annoys Toothless to no end, but I am more amused than I probably should be.

Cougar whines at my distracted flying, snapping me out of my pondering, and I express my thoughts by snapping my head up to smack his face with my horn. He whines even more about his abusive dragon as he nudges me into a dive and I comply. That, too, is something I'm learning to accept: giving and taking. Just as having a rider makes flying so much more fun, allowing him to have some control over where we go or how I fly thrills him to no end. He loves to soar up high on the winds and then dive fast to skim over the water. I'm still working on training him to handle spins and loops. For some reason, the feeling of complete weightlessness scares the breath out of him. Literally, because I've had to catch him a couple times when he fainted.

Maybe, when he gets a bit bolder in the air, I'll grab him in my talons, drop him, catch him, and repeat a few times. If _that_ doesn't build up his confidence in me, I don't know _what_ will.

After we've both had our fill of wind and excitement, but before my rider freezes to death, I descend and land in a clearing among all the wooden nests. Nose zips past me, mouth and claws filled with various bits of plant life. He had learned that he could indirectly help Firefly by aiding Raven in collecting certain mushrooms, leaves, flowers, worms, and insects from this island and others nearby that would be harder to access for wingless creatures. Raven then uses these to make various concoctions to feed Firefly or rub onto his severed leg to ease the pain and keep him sleeping peacefully. Toothless still turns his tail, but he cannot deny the mink dragon is trying hard to make amends.

Cougar dashes off, but returns shortly with some more appropriate outer hides for flying that were formerly part of a yak. He inquires why I'm suddenly hopping around in excitement and I try to tell him, but, of course, he's deaf. From inside Firefly's nest, Toothless projects his unrestrained excitement and joy. Firefly is finally awake!

I nudge my rider to hop up and we take off to flare to a hover just outside of Firefly's nest. A part of the wall opens up and Firefly sticks his head out, but seeing me right there in front of him causes him to stumble back in surprise and shock. Oops, I tend to have that effect on others. To be fair, I suppose this is bringing back flashbacks to the last raid, before I was captured, when I hovered in just this very spot and tried to roast him alive.

Toothless grumbles at me from the other side of the wall in irritation and I fly off to settle down nearby. Firefly emerges once again, leaning heavily on the side of the nest. Where the mangled portion of his leg was severed off, some sort of iron and wood stick serves as an awkward replacement, just like with Stick-leg. Beast spots him and rushes in to offer support with a large arm around the diminutive rider.

Dragons and land-striders alike flock to gather around, climbing over each other to get a look. During Firefly's extended rest, Stick-leg had found a way to make a new artificial tail fin for Toothless. He decides that there is no better time than right now to dump that burdensome weight on Firefly. The rider stumbles under the weight, but a smile splits his face at the sight of a new tailfin for his dragon.

Zealot sneaks up and smacks Firefly in the shoulder and he recoils in pain and surprise. Awww, she likes him! I can now see why Stormfly is so fond of her rider. Second to my Cougar, Zealot is one of the most dragon-like land-striders. We all enjoy a little pain here and there to make life more interesting. A gentle mauling on the shoulder or lower back can be quite invigorating. It reminds us we're still alive.

Zealot then proceeds to clean Firefly's lips with her own because… ummm… land-strider logic. Somebody nearby mutters something about mating, but speaking from experience, I'm pretty sure that's not how it works.

Toothless suddenly explodes from Firefly's nest, where he had been impatiently waiting, hopping on and over anyone in his way. The rider grins at his dragon and hefts the artificial tailfin to suggest they fly, which would certainly make it an awkward moment for his knees to buckle, but who didn't see that coming. Even Toothless knew better than to expect to fly today. Firefly is awake, but still recovering from his injuries and needs food and exercise and rest.

And a dip in a lake. Sure, it's great to have a nice, aromatic, protective crust on one's exterior, but Firefly hasn't been able to properly relieve himself for almost a full cycle of the moon.

To think Toothless has had to endure that for so many days. Poor thing.

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Ever since I flew back to Cougar's island, free from the queen's mind snare and also free to roam and mingle with the land-striders, I've had plenty of opportunities to get to know them better.

For example, I've seen that they can be very indecisive at times.

I'd be laid out on the ground near Cougar's nest, soaking in the sunlight, when some little land-strider hatchlings started poking and petting me and climbing all over. I just let them do their thing since they didn't have any shiny claws and clearly were not hostile. Besides, with hardly a couple flicks of my snout and some encouraging trills, I was able to train them to stroke me under the chin, which felt amazing all up and down my whole spine.

Concerned that I might suddenly decide to bite the hands that pet me, some older land-striders standing nearby would shoo the hatchlings off. Soon afterward, they would come again. I paid little attention, but this occurred many times. Hatchlings come and play, older land-striders shoo them off.

After the seventh iteration of this, I figured I'd help out the older land-striders by shooing off the little hatchlings myself. I can be a kind dragon at times, so I bare my fangs, blew plumes of smoke from my nostrils, and growled. It had the intended effect of sending them fleeing from me, but the older land-striders standing nearby had the most difficult time expressing their gratitude for my thoughtfulness as they waved their shiny claws at me.

See? They're just _impossible_ to please! Give credit where it's due!

Seriously!

One of the more peculiar things I've seen - well, more like revolting - led me to conclude that land-striders are absolutely disgusting creatures.

That may sound harsh, I know, but it's not just me who has made this observation. It's the gossip among _all_ dragons. Once, I saw a land-strider pluck up some orange plant from the ground, brush off the dirt, and eat it. That thing was a part of the ground only a moment ago and he just ate it! What is he, a _goat_?! At least _they_ have the decency to eat what grows _above_ the ground. Why not just be lazy and eat dirt like some sort of… worm of death-eater!

That's not even the _half_ of it! Take their hunting habits. I suppose I can overlook the fact that they breed, raise, and feed their food before killing and eating it, which seems completely counterproductive to me, but it's what they do _after_ the animal dies that is so unwholesome. They separate the sinew and fat with painstaking care, pluck the feathers from chickens, and stretch out the disembodied hide.

And that's only the _beginning_!

They would then proceed to smear it with oils, minerals, and bits of plant matter, smash it with a stone on a stick, drown it in water, strangle it with thin vines, burn it over fire, suffocate it with smoke all day long, impale it with a stick, set it out in the sun or near a fire to dry out and shrivel up, pack clay around it… the list goes on. By the time they're finally ready to eat, you can't even tell what that substance used to be! There's no way to discern whether that dripping, plant-riddled mush used to be a fish or a sheep or an elk.

It's horrible! It's disgusting! It's… _unnatural_!

Granted, I'll admit that when Cougar tossed me some samples, they usually didn't taste that bad, but that's beside the point!

I felt it was up to me to show him proper manners. The next day, we were on a nearby island, resting upon a bluff, enjoying the scenery below of leaves falling from the trees to flutter in the wind. Down below, in a clearing in the forest, a lone black bear was pawing through the undergrowth.

Not one to pass up an opportunity, I plucked up my rider and flipped him onto my back, spread my wings, and started to glide down. The bear didn't see or hear me coming, but he sure _felt_ it. I pounced hard, digging my claws into his back to throw him down on his side. He scrambled up only to receive a face full of my fire, which had the dual benefit of killing him without any risk of fanged retaliation and also burning up all that icky fur.

Once he was reduced to whimpers and uncoordinated twitching, I set into tearing out mouthfuls of meat and even tossed a chunk to my rider. Disgust was written all over his face and passive hum, so I cracked the bear's skull open and gave him the most delicious part.

He just didn't get it! He's so accustomed to his own repulsive eating habits that he can't even recognize simple elegance when he sees it.

Oh well.

Today, I'm making one more attempt to communicate with a land-strider. Not Cougar, this time, and not through gestures either. My target is one particular land-strider that has always supported Firefly, according to Toothless.

Target spotted, the Stick-leg who oversaw the land-strider training we took part in, I swoop down to confront him. A sour look washes over his face, but it doesn't phase me. I brace one wing on the ground to steady myself and reach forward with a claw on the other wing.

Raven had warned me it wouldn't be a good idea to make a habit of doing this, as it may come as a shock to the land-striders and raise a lot more questions than anyone would like to answer. Still, just this once, considering it's Stick-leg, she approved and showed me what to do. If there was one land-strider we would benefit from winning as a friend - aside from our riders - it would be him. According to Toothless, this is the one land-strider who gave Firefly a reason to live throughout his entire life.

Raven's memory is so faulty that Nose sometimes needs to remind her she's freezing to death and needs to put on some more hairy hides, but she was confident that the shapes she taught me were accurate. The structure and meaning behind these shapes are just as ambiguous and arbitrary to me as the very principle of scratching one's thoughts into the dirt instead of simply projecting them, but I carefully go through the motions anyway. I have absolutely no doubt of my memory, but these intricate scratchings are fairly hard to form properly. Still, as the patterns emerge, I can feel Stick-leg's emotional hum shift from annoyed to curious to a shocked sort of awe.

Finished, I take a step back. It is important that he sees not only these shapes, but that it was _me_ who made them. Unlike projected thoughts, there is no signature to dirt scratches that declare who's thought it is aside from watching me make these scratches.

Just to be safe, I project the thoughts the normal way, too.

 _{Sorry I took your leg. It was not I who took your arm, though. That dragon died a few years ago.}_

Reviewing all the details of my memories left no doubt about it. Looking back, I feel no pride. I was under the queen's mind snare, so _everything_ I did was forfeit. Stick-leg has been fairly calm around us dragons these past few days, but as the land-strider Firefly looks up to the most, we need him to feel like he can really trust us. Now that Firefly has a black-scaled shadow named Toothless - who may as well be the rider's outer hide of how inseparable they are, I don't want Firefly to lose Stick-leg just because the queen made me bite off his leg.

Stick-leg looks up at me, then down at the scratches, then back up at me, down, up, down, up. As impossible as it sounds, these scratches really are communicating thoughts! He uses the iron attachment to his severed arm to scratch the back of his head in thought. Things are starting to get a bit awkward, so I swipe at the patterns with my wing to effectively, uhhhh, destroy the… projected thoughts in the dirt.

Overhead, Toothless swoops down low, bellowing out his joy at his first flight with his rider since they destroyed the queen. I turn to find my own rider so we can chase them together, but something squeezes around my tail. I crane my neck around to see Stick-leg with the fingers of his good hand grabbing onto me. He gives me an affectionate pat and a broad smile before turning to proceed along his way, warbling and laughing happily.

Rider found, we go through our usual game where he tries to jump up onto my back before I snap him up with my teeth. A quick duck and roll to the side before leaping up makes him the winner… _this_ time.

We take off and give chase, swooping and gliding and rolling in the sky. Toothless takes his flying easy for the sake of his rider, who's still recovering and really shouldn't be flying in the _first_ place. That and he must have lost a bit of strength from being land-bound so long. Still, he can't resist climbing high into the sky, chasing the shafts of sun managing to stab through the clouds, to give Firefly a brilliant view of his island.

There's no denying it. Land-striders are crazy and disgusting creatures with silly ideas flitting through their minds, but I think I'll stay. Sure, it's not a perfect life, but it's the life I choose and that makes all the difference in the world. The food that grows here is tough and tasteless - and the land-striders even more. The only upsides are the pets. While most places have elk or bears, which are nigh impossible to domesticate, we have something far more entertaining.

We have riders!

* * *

 **A/N 2.0:  
** Whew! And that's a wrap. Lights, curtain, cue the fat lady to sing - would that be Meatlug?

Thank you for joining me on this whacky adventure. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how things turned out. All sincere critiques are good critiques. (-:

Thanks to Colorful Crayola and my bro (he _still_ hasn't watched HTTYD yet) for being my beta readers throughout the entire story.

This story was meant to be the last fanfic I write, but my stupid little brain is already coming up with an itch to write a crossover between HTTYD and The Stanley Parable. I know what you're thinking. "But how… why…I mean how would you even… this can only be a terrible idea!" To which I say, "You're absolutely right!" Follow me if you wanna be notified when it comes out. It also strokes my ego in all the right ways, but that's beside the point.

Oh, I almost forgot! Easter egg time, since this is the last chapter. I threw in some lines from a musical called "Fiddler on the Roof". Here are the quotes I used:

"Once I was happily content to be  
As I was, where I was  
Close to the people who are close to me  
Here in the home I love…"

"Who could see that a man would come  
Who would change the shape of my dreams?  
Helpless, now, I stand with him  
Watching older dreams grow dim."

"Tevye: Quiet, woman, before I get angry! Because when I get angry, even flies don't dare to fly!  
Golde: [sarcastically] I'm very frightened of you. After we finish supper I'll faint."

"A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous? We stay because Anatevka is our home... And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word. Tradition!"


End file.
